smart villages v9:layout 1

SMART VILLAGESNew thinking for off-grid communities worldwide

Smart Villages: New thinking for off-grid communities worldwide

Essays compiled by Brian Heap, Research Associate of the Centre of Development

Studies, University of Cambridge

Published in 2015 by Banson, 27 Devonshire Road, Cambridge CB1 2BH

ISBN: 978-0-9932932-0-7 (paperback); 978-0-9932932-1-4 (hardback)

© Smart Villages Initiative 2015

The articles in this publication may be reproduced in part or in full for educational or other

non-commercial purposes.

Citation: Heap, R.B. (ed) 2015. Smart Villages: New Thinking for Off-Grid Communities Worldwide. Banson/Smart Villages Initiative.

This publication was made possible through the support of grants from the Templeton World

Charity Foundation and the Cambridge Malaysian Education and Development Trust.

The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily

reflect the views of the Templeton World Charity Foundation, the Cambridge Malaysian

Education and Development Trust, the Smart Villages Initiative or Banson.

Banson has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-

party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any

content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Copy editor: Helen de Mattos

Design and layout: Banson

Printed in the UK by Lavenham Press

For forty years the development challenge has been a rich world of one billion people facing a poor world of five billion people.Paul Collier, The Bottom Billion, 2008

The basic truth is that for less than a percent of the income of the rich world nobody has to die of

poverty on the planet. That’s really a powerful truth.Jeffery Sachs, UN General Assembly, 2006

Millions can be lifted out of poverty without ruining the planet with the help of clean sustainable energy.Practical Action (formerly ITDG), Power to the People, 2002

Energy is the golden thread that connects economic growth, increased social equity, and an environment

that allows the world to thrive.UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon,

Sustainable Energy for All initiative, 2011

SMART VILLAGES

Food security and energy security are closely related, but they need the underpinning of environmental

security and sustainability.M.S. Swaminathan, 2015

Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.Nelson Mandela, 2005

The greatest thing on Earth is to have the love of God in your heart, and the next greatest thing is

to have electricity in your house. Tennessee farmer,1930s

The extent of physical hardship imposed on poor women in acquiring and using energy for the most basic survival needs is an enslavement that denies them vital opportunities to escape their state of deprivation.K.V. Ramani, Energy as an Instrument of Women’s Economic Empowerment, 2002

New thinking for off-grid communities worldwide

7

Foreword

Iwarmly welcome the publication of this important collection of expert essays following

the launch of the Smart Villages Initiative on 27 January 2015, hosted by the University

of Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS – Universiti Malaysia Sarawak) in Kuching, Sarawak,

Malaysia. The launch was attended by the Honourable Datuk Dr Erwin Ebin, Minister of

Science, Technology and Innovation, Sarawak; Tan Sri Dr Ahmad Tajuddin Ali, President of

the Malaysian Academy of Sciences (Akademi Sains Malaysia); the Honourable Datuk Haji

Talib Zulpilip, Chairman of Sarawak Economic Development Corporation; and Professor

Dato’ Dr Mohamad Kadim Suaidi, Vice-Chancellor of UNIMAS.

A highly successful workshop followed the launch, in which the Malaysian Academy of

Sciences played a key role. The Kuching workshop attracted participants from a wide range

of countries, including Cambodia, Indonesia, India, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore

and Thailand, as well as Canada and several countries in Africa and Europe. It also

coincided with Malaysia’s 2015 chairmanship of ASEAN, the Association of Southeast

Asian Nations.

Malaysia has been in the vanguard of rural electrification, and today’s high-tech smart

villages under construction are improving the lives of numerous rural families, while

promoting environmental sustainability. Estimates show that today, only 1.3 per cent of the

rural population of Malaysia is without electricity.

Early steps towards electrification were taken shortly after the Second World War, as

pointed out by Tan Sri Ir Ahmad Zaidee Laidin, chair of the organising committee of the

workshop, in his essay. Building blocks of the Government Transformation Programme

were introduced in 2010, providing a roadmap towards achieving the status of developed

country by 2020.

Strong links exist between Malaysia and the United Kingdom, sustained by the many

highly talented students from Malaysia who have studied at British universities, Cambridge

among them.

I am particularly delighted to note that the Cambridge Malaysian Education and

Development Trust (CMEDT), which was founded in 2010 under the chairmanship of the

Honourable Dato’ Sri Mohamad Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia, has

played a formative part in enabling this new Smart Villages Initiative to get off the ground,

8

SMART VILLAGES

together with the Malaysian Commonwealth Studies Centre at Cambridge (MCSC), founded

by the Honourable Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad, formerly Prime Minister of Malaysia.

I commend these essays to everyone concerned about energy for development, and in

particular to policy makers and decision takers as we seek to lift the disadvantaged in our

communities out of the bottom billion.

Tun Ahmad Sarji bin Abdul HamidChairman, Executive Committee,

Cambridge Malaysian Education and Development TrustJoint-Chairman, Executive Committee,

Malaysian Commonwealth Studies Centre at Cambridge

9

Contents

Foreword 7

Preface 11

Concept

Energy for development – the concept 13

John Holmes and Terry van Gevelt

Development

Energy innovation for smart villages 21

Daniel M. Kammen

Transforming rural communities through mini-grids 29

AbuBakr Bahaj

Leapfrogging to sustainable power 35

R. Vasant Kumar

Smart villages – the Malaysian approach 42

Ahmad Zaidee Laidin

Energy services, health, food and politics

Can energy access improve health? 52

Wole Soboyejo

Energy provision and food security in off-grid villages 56

M.S. Swaminathan and P.C. Kesavan

Smart villages for smart voters 63

Mukulika Banerjee

Enablement through the public and private sectors

Public policy targets for energy access 68

Benjamin K. Sovacool

10

SMART VILLAGES

Energy policies for off-grid villages in Tanzania 74

Andrew Mnzava

Will private-sector finance support off-grid energy? 81

Tobias S. Schmidt

Better living

How electricity changed our lives 88

Michael J. Ssali

Energy and ICT for educational inclusion in Latin America 95

Javier González Díaz

Improving life for women and girls in Sierra Leone 101

Christiana A. Thorpe

A way of life: energy provision in Africa 105

Murefu Barasa

Reflection

A better future for the bottom billion 111

Deepak Nayyar

Contributors 118

Preface

11

The significance of international development as we know it today was anticipated in

President Truman’s inaugural address in 1949 – “a bold new program for making the

benefits of scientific advances and industrial progress available for the improvement

and growth of underdeveloped areas”. Six decades later, the argument continues about the

contribution that techno-utopian views – commonplace in today’s high-tech world – can make

towards international development. Yes, real reductions in poverty and hunger have been

achieved in pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals, but there is still a long way to go.

The aim of these essays is to explore access to energy as an entry point for rural development.

On the supply side, what are the scientific and technological advances of today and tomorrow

that could transform the way that energy, particularly electricity, could be made more readily

available for rural transformation? On the demand side, what are the enabling factors that

make energy access a catalyst for sustainable development in off-grid villages? What

framework conditions need to be put in place so that local entrepreneurs can establish

enterprises to deliver and make productive use of energy in remote villages, the home of some

1.3 billion poor and underserved (Holmes and van Gevelt)?

New technologies emerge from basic science, but innovation to bring those technologies to

rural markets and in associated financing and business models is essential. Energy derived

from modern tech nologies promises to make the transition from fossil fuels to renewable

sources of energy more realistic, though how market volatility will influence their sustainability

in developing countries remains to be seen. In remote parts there may be little choice in

terms of the technologies available, but a range of new possibilities is being investigated

(Kammen, Bahaj, Kumar).

Notwithstanding its dynamic growth and changes in investment strategy over the past 40

years, Malaysia has pioneered an early form of smart villages as analogues of smart cities

(Zaidee). The potential also exists in smart villages to change lives, whether through improved

health and nutrition (Soboyejo, Swaminathan and Kesavan), or democratic empowerment

(Banerjee). Clearly, rural education could become one of the greatest beneficiaries of

information and communication technology (ICT) if electricity from renewable resources

becomes available in remote areas (González).

Public-private sector involvement and entrepreneurship are a requisite for universal energy

access in remote villages. Will resources from the public and private sectors be adequate

12

SMART VILLAGES

for the necessary capital investment and the required infrastructure, and will there be proper

governance and appropriate regulation (Sovacool, Mnzava, Schmidt)?

Sir Paul Collier at the University of Oxford argues that no country anywhere has developed

without urbanisation because of the way that a good city is able to harness economies of

scale and specialisation1. What is the role of smart villages in this transition and might

they help redress the balance of opportunities between cities and villages? This will depend

greatly on the quality of life created in smart villages (Ssali, Thorpe), and on the provision of

sustainable employment (Barasa). The essays conclude, therefore, with an urgent plea to

focus attention on employment as the key step towards the economics of escaping the rural

poverty trap, showing how interrelated are energy provision and the capacity to create jobs

and sustain employment (Nayyar).

We are deeply indebted to all the distinguished experts who have contributed to this eclectic

collection of essays. They have readily turned their expertise to the task of writing about the

concept of smart villages in accessible and concise ways that fit well with the United Nations

Sustainable Energy for All initiative (se4all.org) and the new Sustainable Development Goals,

post-September 2015.

We publish these essays with policy makers and decision takers in mind – planners of

sustainable off-grid well-being faced with the demanding challenges of lifting the bottom billion

out of the poverty trap.

Professor Sir Brian HeapSenior Adviser for Smart Villages

Research Associate of the Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge

1. Collier, P. 2015. Achieving Sustainability: Should People be Fitted to Policies, or Policies to

People? Monthly Lecture Series, Center for Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability, University

of Zurich, Switzerland, 19 March 2015. http://www.ccrs.uzh.ch/Veranstaltungen.html

Worldwide, 1.3 billion people remain without access to electricity and 2.7 billion are

still cooking on harmful and inefficient stoves1. Many live in remote rural village

communities, and until they have access to energy services, little progress can be

made to develop and improve their lives2. As United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

has stated, “energy is the golden thread that connects economic growth, increased social

equity, and an environment that allows the planet to thrive”3.

Improving the lives of rural communities by developing smart villages is a concept analogous

to the more familiar smart cities. The vision for smart villages is that modern energy access

can act as a catalyst for development – in education, health, food security, productive

enterprise, clean water and sanitation, environmental sustainability and participatory

democracy – which in turn supports further improvements in access to energy. Integrating

energy access with other development initiatives, harnessing and developing local entre -

preneurial capacities, and technological advances in the supply and use of sustainable

energy are making such transformative change possible.

OverviewSmart villages capture many of the benefits of urban living while retaining valued aspects of

rural life and ensuring balanced development at the national level. This enables villagers

to attain healthy and fulfilling lives, achieve their development potential, earn a viable living

and be connected to the wider world, giving them a real choice between the traditional route

of migration to a city, or life in a smart village.

Smart villages will be connected to towns and

cities through information and communica tion

tech nologies (ICT) enabled by access to

energy. Such technologies will enhance edu -

cation and health services by providing links

Energy for development – the concept

John Holmes and Terry van Gevelt

The key enablers of developmentin smart villages are sustainable

access to electricity and clean and efficient cooking

appliances

13

to the world’s knowledge base and oppor tu -

nities for distance learning, as well as sup -

porting initiatives in m-health (mobile health,

also known as telemedicine). Connectivity will

also open up par ticipation in governance pro -

cesses at local, regional and national levels.

Smart villages will serve as complementary engines of economic growth to smart cities,

producing goods and services for local rural markets as well as high-value-added agricultural

and rural industry products for both national and international markets. And they will act as

stewards for the environment as well as, in some cases, functioning as ecotourism hubs.

Key enablers of these development benefits in smart villages are sustainable electricity

supplies and the availability of clean and efficient appliances for cooking. Productive

enterprises and facilities with higher energy demands will tend to be located in hub villages

supplied by the national grid if sufficiently close or – for the many remoter communities – by

local mini-grids driven by renewable energy sources, possibly in hybrid form with diesel

generators in some cases. The more dispersed communities around the hub villages will

typically use pico-power and stand-alone home systems to provide more basic levels of

electricity supply until distribution networks can be extended to them (see Box 1)4,5,6.

Smart Villages Initiative This initiative is evaluating how to deliver energy access to rural communities so as to make

smart villages a reality. Through a three-year programme of engagement activities in Africa,

Asia and Latin America, it will help to ensure that policies and development initiatives

are better informed on the realities, challenges and opportunities of rural energy provision

for development in key sectors. The following paragraphs elaborate on some of the

characteristics of smart villages that will be explored by the initiative.

EducationSmart villages aim to increase the time available for students to study and will address

prevalent factors that negatively affect the ability of students to acquire the knowledge and

skills necessary to achieve economic goals and improve labour productivity. These include

eliminating the need to spend time collecting traditional biomass, reducing respiratory illness

caused by indoor air pollution, and ensuring that lighting is both safe and of sufficient quality.

SMART VILLAGES

M-health initiatives will enablemobile health diagnostic solutionsrequiring relatively low levels oflocal medical skill and provideaccess to specialist health care

14

ICT-equipped schools will provide a good level of access to the internet and consequently

the world’s knowledge base, ending the infor mation isolation experienced by many rural

communities. New opportunities will be generated for distance and adaptive learning,

reducing the need to move to towns or cities to achieve higher levels of education. In

15


Box 1 Electrification technology options for smart villages7, 8

Technology

Pico-power

systems

Stand-alone

home

systems

Micro/mini-

grids

Regional

grid

connection

Generationcapacity (kW)0.001–0.01

0.01–1

1–1,000

1,000–1,000,000

EnergysourcesSolar PV

Solar PV

Hydro, wind,

solar PV,

biomass,

diesel, hybrid

combinations

Fossil fuel,

hydro, wind,

solar PV,

biomass,

geothermal

ServicesavailableLighting, radio

communication

reception, two-

way mobile

communication

Same as above plus

additional lighting

and communication,

television, fans,

limited motive

and heat power

Same as above plus

enhanced motive

and heat power,

and ability to power

community-based

services

Assuming high

quality of connection,

same as above up to

a full range of electric

power appliances,

commercial and

industrial applications

Estimated economic cost US$ 10–100

US$ 75–1,000

Medium-large

capital cost,

low marginal

cost to end-

user

Medium-large

capital cost,

low marginal

cost to end-

user

addition, ICT and internet access also have a “pull factor”, providing incentives for school

attendance and for attracting and retaining good teachers.

HealthAt the most basic level, households in smart villages will be able to consume potable water

and a more nutritious diet due to the reduced cost of boiling water and cooking food, and

enhanced agricultural productivity arising from associated development initiatives and

reduced wastage. Furthermore, modern technologies and cleaner fuel sources will replace

the traditional biomass cook stoves that currently result in harmful indoor pollution.

ICT-enabled m-health initiatives such as the Swasthya Slate (www.swasthyaslate.org) will

enable mobile health diagnostic solutions, requiring relatively low levels of local medical skill

and providing access to specialist health-care services based in urban communities where

necessary. Epidemiological data will be gathered, providing the opportunity for more effective

Small-scale solar is ideally suited to the low energy requirements of modern communication technologies.

16

SMART VILLAGES

Sam

rat3

5/D

ream

stim

e.c

om

interventions and early warning capability in case of outbreaks of contagious diseases such

as cholera and Ebola.

Food securityApproximately one in every seven people in the developing world is food insecure, unable

to consume sufficient food to sustain a healthy and active life. Energy provision together

with ICT can help smart villages become more food secure as farmers take advantage of

improvements in irrigation systems, weather forecasting, cold-storage infrastructure, and

agronomic and market information, and become fully informed of cognate environmental

issues. Consequently, smart villages will be in a better position to gain from the benefits of

agricultural modernisation, reduce waste and capture more of the agricultural value chain.

Productive enterpriseProductive enterprise in rural areas generally consists of small and medium-sized enterprises

such as agro-processing, textiles, furniture, chemicals, electronics and machinery. Energy

access promises participation in knowledge-based activities ranging from handicraft shops

to factories, operated informally or organised as a formal business, and using traditional

production processes or even employing cutting-edge modern technology. Participation in

primary manufacturing, however, will be limited in off-grid villages by the scale of energy

required relative to that available from local sources.

Smart villages, through the provision of modern energy access, will bolster rural industry

through a variety of channels, including the ability to use mechanical power, the availability

of a more skilled workforce through ICT-enabled education, and extended working hours

through high-quality lighting. ICT will provide access to mobile financial services and up-to-

date market information to enable integration with more complex value chains, and to carve

out niches in international markets through identifying and transacting directly with previously

unreached customer bases.

Where appropriate, smart villages will host

clusters of rural enterprises in strategic areas

of dynamic competitive advantage. Clusters

will be underpinned by modern energy access

as well as other hard and soft infrastructure,

and sup porting institutions. This will allow rural

Smart villages will be stewards of the environment, monitoring

forest health, water quality, soil conditions and changes

to the landscape


17

enter prises to further benefit from econo -

mies of scale and agglomeration.

EnvironmentSmart villages will be stewards of the envi -

ron ment aided by technologies to monitor

key environ mental indicators such as forest

health, water quality, soil conditions and changes to the landscape. They will also reduce

pressure on deforestation through the use of efficient cook stoves to decrease the need for

tradi tional biomass energy sources such as charcoal, a key driver of unsustainable forest use.

Smart villages will host community-run recycling facilities ranging from those equipped

to recycle wastewater and organic waste from agro-processing, to next-generation facilities

for the recycling of e-waste including energy-storage and generation technologies such as

batteries and solar panels. Depending on geographical endowments, some smart villages

will be able to operate as regional ecotourism hubs, an activity that can improve the welfare

and connectivity of rural and urban communities.

Participatory democracyRural communities tend to be politically disenfranchised due to their relative remoteness.

Consequently, they lack information on societal issues and have difficulty becoming actively

involved in debates about how to address them. Smart villages, through ICT, will allow rural

communities to become more aware of their social, economic and political rights, engage in

governance processes at all levels and hold policy makers to account.

Quality of lifeThrough the provision of modern energy, smart villages will have a transformative impact on

villagers by alleviating the drudgery of repetitive tasks that is pervasive in many lives in rural

communities. This will save time and effort, and villagers will be able to enjoy entertainment

through radio, television and the internet. Public lighting at night will mean that people,

particularly women, can enjoy social interaction without fear of danger.

ConclusionAchieving the Millennium Development Goals, the post-2015 development agenda and the

United Nations target of energy access for all by 2030 requires a concerted effort focused on

Smart villages will allow communities to become more aware of their rights, engage ingovernance processes and holdpolicy makers to account

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19

rural areas, where approximately 70 per cent of the world’s poor live9. Drawing on the success

of smart cities, the smart villages vision offers an ambitious and unifying framework that is

sufficiently flexible to allow for different development pathways for different rural communities,

while leading to significantly improved lives for villagers and village communities, and

contributing to balanced national and international growth.

There are many areas within the smart villages vision that will be sharpened and refined

through a series of workshops to be held around the world under the current Smart Villages

Initiative. What is clear, however, is that the smart villages vision, with the immense potential

benefits that it can bring to rural communities, is not just aspirational but can be realised with

the engagement and wholehearted commitment of all stakeholders, from the inventors of

new energy-provision technologies to indispensable village leaders as role models.

References

1. IEA. 2014. World Energy Outlook 2014. International Energy Agency, Paris, France.

http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/publications/weo-2014

2. Practical Action. 2014. Poor People’s Energy Outlook 2014. The Schumacher Centre, Rugby,

UK. http://practicalaction.org/ppeo2014

3. United Nations. 2012. Sustainable Energy for All: A Global Action Agenda. Pathways forConcerted Action toward Sustainable Energy for All. The Secretary-General’s High-Level Group on

Sustainable Energy for All, United Nations, New York, NY, USA. http://tinyurl.com/oayjddu

4. Bailey, M., Henriques, J., Holmes, J. and Jain, R. 2012. Providing Village-Level EnergyServices in Developing Countries. Smart Villages Initiative.

http://e4sv.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Scoping-report-final-230113_with-logos.pdf

5. van Gevelt, T., and Holmes, J. 2015. Electricity for Off-Grid Villages: An Overview of the CurrentState of Play. Smart Villages Initiative.

http://e4sv.org/publication/electricity-off-grid-villages-overview-current-state-play

6. Smart Villages. 2014. Report of 1st Regional Smart Villages Workshop: Arusha, Tanzania, 2–5 June 2014. http://e4sv.org/publication/report-of-1st-regional-smart-villages-workshop

7. Alstone, P., Gershenson, D. and Kammen, D.M. 2015. Decentralised energy systems for

clean electricity access, Nature Climate Change 5: 305–314.

http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v5/n4/full/nclimate2512.html?WT.ec_id=NCLIMATE-201504

(accessed 20 April 2015).

8. Kempener, R., Lavagne d'Ortigue, O., Saygin, D., Skeer, J., Vinci, S. and Gielen, D. 2015.

Off-Grid Renewable Energy Systems: Status and Methodological Issues. Working Paper,

International Renewable Energy Agency – IRENA. http://tinyurl.com/o8megce (accessed 20 April

2015).

9. The World Bank. 2013. World Development Indicators 2013. Washington, DC, USA.

http://databank.worldbank.org/data/download/WDI-2013-ebook.pdf (accessed March 2014).

For more information on the Smart Villages Initiative, see www.e4sv.org.

Authors

Dr John Holmes is co-Leader of the Smart Villages Initiative and a Senior Research Fellow at theUniversity of Oxford, where his research is concerned with making better links between science andpolicy making. [email protected]

Dr Terry van Gevelt is Project Manager for the Smart Villages Initiative, Research Associate andAffiliated Lecturer at the Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge, and a seniormember of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge. [email protected]

SMART VILLAGES

20

21

Two critically important and linked challenges face the global community in the

21st century: the persistence of widespread energy poverty and the resulting loss of

economic opportunity; and intensifying human-driven climate disruption. These crises

are inexorably linked through the energy technology systems that have so far provided the

vast majority of our energy: fossil fuels. Both the equity and energy service crisis and the

climate crisis have become increasingly serious over past decades, even though we have

seen with greater clarity the individual and social benefits that energy technology systems

have brought to humanity.

The correlation between access to electricity and a wide range of social goods is

overwhelming. Access to improved energy services alone does not, however, provide a

surefire pathway to economic opportunity and an improved quality of life. In Figure 1 we

show the correlation between electricity access across nations and a variety of quality-

of-life indicators such as the Human Development Index, a measure of well-being

based in equal thirds on gross national income, life expectancy and educational attainment.

Other indicators studied include gender equality in educational opportunity and the

percentage of students who reach educational milestones. All of these indices improve

significantly and roughly linearly with access to electricity. As just one example, both the

percentage of people below the poverty line and childhood mortality decline with increasing

access to energy1.

Today, some 1.3 billion people – approximately

17 per cent of the global population – are

without access to electricity, relying instead on

kerosene and traditional biomass includ ing

dung and agricultural residues. This access gap

has persisted as grid expansion programmes

and population have grown.

Energy innovation forsmart villages

Daniel M. Kammen

Access to energy services alone is not sufficient, but it is a

vital resource for improvedeconomic opportunity and

quality of life

0.90.80.70.60.50.40.3

R2 = 0.78

0 20 40 60 80 100Electricity access (%)

Hum

an D

evel

opm

ent I

ndex

Human Development Index Figure 1 Indicators for quality of life

The Human Development Index (HDI) and

various additional metrics of quality of

life are plotted against the percentage of

the population with access to electricity.

Each data point represents country-

level data at a specific point in time. For

additional data, see Alstone et al.1

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

00 20 40 60 80 100

Electricity access (%)

Wom

en to

men

enr

olm

ent

Gender parity in tertiary education

100

80

60

40

20

00 20 40 60 80 100


Prop

ortio

n of

pop

ulat

ion

(%)

People living on less than US$ 1 a day (PPP)

R2 = 0.52

R2 = 0.721,000

800

600

400

200

00 20 40 60 80 100


Dea

ths

per 1

00,0

00 li

ve b

irth

s

Maternal mortalityrates

R2 = 0.69

100

80

60

40

20

00 20 40 60 80 100


Prop

ortio

n of

pup

ils (%

)

Grade 1 pupils completing primary education

R2 = 0.66

22

SMART VILLAGES

Grid expansion over the last century has roughly kept pace with the increase in the global

population. According to 2013 data, about 1.4 billion people are completely off-grid, and

many ostensibly connected people in the developing world experience significant outages

that range from 20 to 200 or more days a year. The majority of the off-grid population is in

rural and underserved peri-urban areas. Current forecasts predict that this number will

remain roughly unchanged until 2030, which would relegate a significant portion of the

population and the economies of many of the neediest countries and regions on Earth to

fragile, underproductive lives with fewer options than they might otherwise have. Traditional

grid extension will be slowest to reach these communities. Unless the advances in both

the energy and the information systems that have occurred over the past decade are more

widely adopted, there will be little if any chance to alter this trend.

Advances in off-grid systems We have recently seen the emergence of off-grid electricity systems that do not require the

same supporting networks as traditional forms of centralised power generation. These

technological innovations are as much based on information systems as they are directly

about energy technology. While traditional electricity grids can gradually pay off (amortise)

the high costs of generation, transmission and distribution equipment across many

customers and many decades, a new business model is needed to rapidly bring energy

services to the rural and urban poor. Mini-grids and products for individual user end-use,

such as solar home systems (pay-as-you-go), have benefited from dramatic price reductions

and advances in the performance of solid state electronics, cellular communications tech -

nologies and electronic banking, and from the dramatic decrease in solar energy costs2.

This mix of technological and market innovation has contributed to a vibrant new energy

services sector that in many nations has outpaced traditional grid expansion.

The comparison between the traditional utility model of central-station energy systems and

this new wave of distributed energy providers is instructive. Traditional dynamo generators

and arc lighting perform best at large scale,

and they became the mainstay of large-scale

electric utilities. But the classic utility model of

a one-way flow of energy from power plant

to consumer is now rapidly changing. The

combination of low-cost solar, micro-hydro

and other generation technologies coupled

Off-grid electricity systems are as much based on

information systems as they are directly about energy

technology

Energy innovation for smart villages

23

with the electronics needed to manage small-scale power and to communicate with control

devices and remote billing systems has changed village energy. High-performance, low-cost

photovoltaic generation, paired with advanced batteries and controllers, provides scalable

systems across much larger power ranges than central generation, from megawatts down to

fractions of a watt.

The rapid and continuing improvements in end-use efficiency for solid-state lighting, direct-

current televisions, refrigeration, fans, and information and communication technology (ICT)

have resulted in a super-efficiency trend. This progress has enabled decentralised power

and appliance systems to compete with conventional equipment for basic household needs.

A village micro-grid system in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. The system serves a community of 200 and provides household energy services, telecoms and satellite (dish shown), andwater pumping for fishponds (seen at centre) and refrigeration. The supply includes micro-hydro and solar generation – one small panel is shown here and others are distributed onbuilding rooftops.

24

SMART VILLAGES

Danie

l M. K

am

men

These rapid technological advances in supporting clean energy both on and off the grid are

furthermore predicted to continue, a process that has been particularly important at the

individual device and household (solar home system) level, and for the emerging world of

village mini-grids3.

Diverse technology options expand village energy servicesWith these technological cornerstones, aid organisations, governments, academia and the

private sector are developing and supporting a wide range of approaches to serve the

needs of the poor, including pico-lighting devices – often very small 1–2 watt solar panels

charging lithium-ion batteries which in turn power low-cost/high-efficiency light-emitting

diode (LED) lamps, solar home systems and community-scale micro- and mini-grids.

Decentralised systems are clearly not complete substitutes for a reliable grid connection,

but they represent an important level of access until a reliable grid is available and feasible,

and a platform from which to develop more distributed energy services. By overcoming

access barriers, often through market-based structures, these systems provide entirely

new ways of bringing energy services to poor and formerly un-connected people.

Meeting people’s basic lighting and communication needs is an important first step on the

modern electricity service ladder4. Eliminating kerosene lighting from a household improves

health and safety while providing significantly higher quality and quantities of light. Fuel-

based lighting is a US$ 20 billion industry in Africa alone, and tremendous opportunities

exist both to reduce energy costs for the poor and to improve the quality of service.

Charging a rural or village cell phone can cost US$ 5–10 per kilowatt hour at a pay-for-

service charging station, but less than US$ 0.5 via an off-grid product or on a mini-grid.

This investment frees income and also tends to lead to higher rates of use for mobile phones

and other small devices. Overall, the first few watts of power mediated through efficient end

uses lead to benefits in household health and education as well as a reduction in poverty.

Beyond basic needs, there can be a wide

range of important and highly valued services

from decentralised power – such as tele vision,

refrigeration, fans, heating, ventilation and air-

conditioning, or motor-driven appli cations –

depending on the power level and its quality

along with demand-side efficiency.

Meeting people’s basic lighting and communication needs is

an important first step on the modern electricity

service ladder


25

Experience with off-grid under-served people confirms the exceptional value derived from

the first increment of energy service – equivalent to 0.2–1 watt hour per day for mobile phone

charging or the first 100 lumen-hours of light. Given the cost and service level that fuel-

based lighting and fee-based mobile phone charging provide as a baseline, simply shifting

this expenditure to a range of modern energy technology solutions could provide a much

better service, or significant cost savings over the lifetime of a lighting product – typically

three to five years.

Box 1 Roadmap to clean energy in a smart village

n Establish clear goals at the local level. Universal energy access by 2030 is the global

goal7, but establishing near-term goals that embody meaningful steps from the present

situation will show what is possible and at what level of effort. Cities and villages have

begun with audits of energy services and costs, and environmental impacts. A number

of tools are often cited as excellent starting points, including climate footprint assess -

ment tools such as http://coolclimate.berkeley.edu, and the HOMER software package

http://www.homerenergy.com, used by many groups both to design local mini-grids and

to plan and cost off-grid energy options.

n Empower villages as both designers and consumers of localised power. Village solutions

necessarily vary greatly, but clean energy resource assessments, evaluation of the requisite

infrastructure investment, and – most often neglected but most important – identifying

the social structures that enable training, are required to make the village energy system

a success. In a pilot programme in rural Nicaragua, once the assessment was complete8,

movement from evaluation to implementation quickly became a goal of both the community

and a local commercial plant.

n Make equity a central design consideration. Community energy solutions have the

potential to liberate women entrepreneurs and disadvantaged ethnic minorities by tailoring

user materials and energy plans to meet the cultural and linguistic needs of these

communities. National programmes often ignore business skills, culturally appropriate

cooking require ments and other home energy needs. Thinking explicitly about this is good

business and makes the solutions much more likely to be adopted.

26

SMART VILLAGES

Mirroring the early development of electric utilities, improvements in underlying technology

systems for decentralised power are also being combined with new business models,

institutional and regulatory support, and ICT systems5,6. Historically, the non-technical barriers

to adoption have been impediments to widespread access to off-grid electricity, and in some

cases they still are. A lack of appropriate investment capital also hampers the establishment

and expansion of private-sector initiatives. Furthermore, complex and often perverse policy

environments impair entry for clean technologies and entrench incumbent systems. Subsidies

for liquid lighting fuels can reduce the incentive to adopt electric lighting. In addition, the

prevalence of imperfect or inaccurate infor mation about quality can lead to market spoiling4,

and is also manifested by a lack of consumer understanding and awareness of alternatives

to their existing lighting technology.

Testing laboratories that rate the quality of the lighting products and disseminate the

results are an invaluable step in increasing the quality and competitiveness of new entrants

into the off-grid and mini-grid energy services space. The Lighting Global programme

(https://www.lightingglobal.org) is one example of an effort that began as an industry

watchdog, but has now become an important platform that provides market insights, steers

quality assurance frameworks for modern off-grid lighting devices and systems, and

promotes sustainability through a partnership with industry.

An action agenda for smart villagesThe diversity of new energy service products now available, alongside rapidly increasing

demand for information and communication services, water, health and entertainment in

villages worldwide, has built a very large demand for reliable and low-cost energy7. Combining

this demand with the drive for clean energy brings together two important objectives that

were for many years seen as in direct competition: clean energy and the provision of village

energy services. To enable and expand this process, an emerging range of design principles

can form a roadmap to clean energy economies.

References

1. Alstone, P., Gershenson, D. and Kammen, D.M. 2015. Decentralized energy systems for clean

electricity access, Nature Climate Change 5: 305–314. Macmillan, London, UK.

2. Zheng, C. and Kammen, D.M. 2014. An innovation-focused roadmap for a sustainable global

photovoltaic industry, Energy Policy 67: 159–169. Elsevier, Amsterdam, Netherlands.


27

SMART VILLAGES

28

3. Schnitzer, D., Lounsbury, D.S., Carvallo, J.P., Deshmukh, R., Apt, J. and Kammen, D.M.

2014. Microgrids for Rural Electrification: A Critical Review of Best Practices Based on Seven Case Studies. United Nations Foundation, Washington, DC, USA.

http://energyaccess.org/images/content/files/MicrogridsReportFINAL_high.pdf

4. Azevedo, I.L., Morgan, M.G. and Morgan, F. 2009. The transition to solid-state lighting,

Proceedings of the IEEE 97: 481–510. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers,

Piscataway, NJ, USA.

5. Mileva, A., Nelson, J.H., Johnston, J. and Kammen, D.M. 2013. SunShot solar power

reduces costs and uncertainty in future low-carbon electricity systems, Environmental Science &Technology, 47 (16): 9053–9060. dx.doi.org/10.1021/es401898f. American Chemical Society,

Washington, DC, USA.

6. Sovacool, B.K. 2012. The political economy of energy poverty: A review of key challenges,

Energy for Sustainable Development 16: 272–282. Elsevier, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

7. SE4ALL. 2013. Global Tracking Framework. Sustainable Energy For All, United Nations, New

York, NY, USA.

8. Casillas, C. and Kammen, D.M. 2010. The energy-poverty-climate nexus, Science 330: 1182.

American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, DC, USA.

Author

Professor Daniel M. Kammen is Professor of Energy at the University of California, Berkeley, USA,with parallel appointments in the Energy and Resources Group, the Goldman School of PublicPolicy, and the Department of Nuclear Engineering. He is founding Director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley. [email protected];

https://rael.berkeley.edu; Twitter: dan_kammen

Access to energy, especially for rural communities, represents a central pillar of

development. For the more than a billion people in the world without reliable access,

the provision of electricity will have a huge impact on their livelihoods as it is crucial

for human well-being and development.

Without a reliable energy supply it is difficult to escape a subsistence lifestyle and poverty.

However, in many developing countries, the upfront investment required to link villages to

the electrical distribution network is and will likely remain prohibitively expensive in terms of

construction and community affordability. This is the case across most of Sub-Saharan Africa

and some areas of South Asia. Previously agreed United Nations development criteria were

embedded in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)1, and now energy provision is

established as one of the new Sustainable Development Goals2, which replace the MDGs.

In Africa, renewable energy derived from vast hydropower resources and solar energy

potential could satisfy much of the continent’s growing need for power. However, power

capacity from these sources will have to increase exponentially to provide the necessary

access. The United Nations Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) initiative has responded to

the global energy development challenges by setting three linked goals for 2030:

n universal access to modern energy;

n doubling the rate of improvement in energy efficiency globally; and

n doubling the share of renewables in the global energy mix.

To achieve the 2030 target for universal

access to electrical power alone, the current

global capacity will need to increase by

45 per cent, and this will be in the form of

mini-grids3. In Sub-Saharan Africa, with 13

per cent of the world’s population, only 290

Transforming rural communitiesthrough mini-grids

AbuBakr Bahaj

In Africa, renewable energy derived from vast hydropower

resources and solar energypotential could satisfy much of

the growing need for power

29

million of the 915 million people have access to an electricity network. The estimated cost

of universal access is approximately US$ 470 billion for Sub-Saharan Africa alone,

compared to US$ 1 trillion globally4.

These numbers highlight the mammoth task ahead. The challenge for the global community

is to address the development and implementation of sustainable energy supply projects in

rural communities in Africa and Asia. Solutions should embrace social, technical, economic

and environmental aspects, building on cultural understanding and local needs. Such

approaches will allow appropriate knowledge generation based on mini-grid projects

replicated at scale. In my view, we need to establish joint learning entities or project

exemplars between national and international institutions. These will be beacons to show

what can be achieved in smart villages, lending much-needed confidence in the scoping

and implementation carried out by rural electrification authorities involved in projects of this

kind, as well as capturing the valuable knowledge of what has worked and what has not.

What follows is a discussion of two exemplary case studies.

Mini-grid case studies Renewable off-grid energy supply based on mini-grids can be developed and designed to

provide essential access to electricity in rural areas. Due to the remoteness of the locations

such solutions, using appropriate business models, represent a cheaper option than

extending the national grid. Such models will need to have income generation at their core,

governed through an energy supply company and supported by a community cooperative

or other suitable business venture.

An on-going action-research approach aimed at addressing energy provision in rural

communities in East Africa is the grant-funded Energy for Development (e4D) concept. This

aims to establish and implement replicable and sustainable off-grid electricity generation to

promote development and well-being5.

The e4D concept has people at its core,

engaging effectively with communities to de -

termine their energy needs and develop appro -

priate community structures and renew able

electrical power supply systems, focus ing on

long-term project sustainability. A major aim

The challenge for the globalcommunity is to address thedevelopment and implementationof sustainable energy supplyprojects in rural communities

30

SMART VILLAGES

of e4D is to invigorate communities and their village centres, providing support for self-

governance, finance and entrepreneurship.

Our first intervention in Kenya, in 2012, created a community-based cooperative and a

solar photovoltaic (PV)-driven mini-grid providing electricity to the remote Kitonyoni village

trading centre, Makueni county, some 130 kilometres from Nairobi. The site was chosen

for its remoteness, level of community poverty and grid proximity, with a monitored control

village about 30 kilometres from Kitonyoni forming part of the project. The solar project

is designed to support around 3,000 very poor inhabitants by providing grid-standard

alternating-current power directly to all buildings – shops, cafes, schools, health centres,

places of worship and so on, which in turn provide a range of services to customers from

the surrounding area. These services include refrigeration and charging of appliances such

as light-emitting diode (LED) lanterns and mobile phones. The infrastructure houses the

plant equipment and provides office and meeting facilities for the community and its

committees, acting as a village focus (Figure 1)5. Together, e4D engineers, local contractors

and villagers were able to assemble the containerised 13.5 kilowatt-peak (kWp) PV solar

plant, battery storage and canopy, and install the locally supplied mini-grid within one week.

The premise of the modular project design is to make it easy to replicate and resize to suit

villages of various sizes and energy requirements5.

The e4D team worked closely with villagers to determine their needs, aspirations and

goals with respect to electrification. We established an economically sustainable approach

Figure 1 Community power

A bird’s-eye view of the Kitonyoni villagetrading centre, solar PV canopy and water tank. Two con tainers underneaththe canopy hold the batteries and thesystem’s switch gear and protection. One of the containers is used as thecommunity cooperative office.

Transforming rural communities through mini-grids

31

whereby the community contributes to the

project and is responsible for the operation

and mainten ance of the plant. Through the

energy supply company ESCO, income

for the cooperative is generated via mem -

bership fees, local sales of electricity and

share ownership. Such income covers all

the running and replacement costs of project components and management, provides

micro-financing for the community and contributes to the recovery of the capital cost

of the project.

The school, health centre, churches and more than 40 businesses in Kitonyoni have a

24-hour, stable and reliable source of electricity, allowing them to extend their working hours

and to provide additional services to 3,000 local people; services include information

technology training, tailoring and hair-dressing, as well as the electrical charging facilities

mentioned earlier. Moreover, the solar canopy of the PV system was designed to serve as

a rain collector feeding tanks with capacity for 20,000 litres, enabling water to be stored and

sold by the cooperative to the community throughout the year.

The transformation of the trading centre is very clear – land prices have more than doubled,

benefiting the local community through land sales. At least 10 new buildings have been

completed since the project’s inception, new businesses have started, business income has

more than doubled in most cases and, importantly, a newly donated maternity ward has

been electrified and is now operational. Over the 24 months of operation, the e4D project

has transformed the trading centre and the lives of the villagers, providing electrical services

more reliably than the national grid. The project has given the research team data on

system performance, energy demand at the trading centre, and comparative developmental

analysis with the control village. It has also allowed the Kenyan Rural Electrification Authority

(REA) to learn from the experience, developing capacity that has now expanded, with three

additional solar PV projects based on the e4D concept.

The e4D concept was applied to another project developed and installed by the team, this

time in a small community in Bambouti, rural Cameroon. This project was designed to test

the growth and expansion of the concept of implementing a PV power plant – only this time

it was initially without a mini-grid. It has a 6 kWp PV array and battery storage system that

Strong and growing interest inadopting the e4D approach hasemerged among governments and the private sector as well asinternational funding agencies

32

SMART VILLAGES

Transforming rural communities through mini-grids

33

supplies the local dispensary with electricity and provides power to a community-based

charging station for batteries and other appliances. The health centre is clearly improving

and, according to the community 2014 annual report, the child mortality rate has fallen.

Entrepreneurial activities such as a tool-sharpening business and a barber's shop have

mushroomed since the arrival of electricity from the plant. The purpose is to enable the

community to expand the project by their own means; currently the income from electricity

sales and membership fees contributes to the establishment of a micro-grid to supply power

to buildings at the centre of the village5.

ConclusionsThe scope for implementing the technologies needed to deliver access to electricity in rural

communities is complex. I have highlighted some possible ways forward in delivering these

services at scale through optimised modular designs, community structures, and partnerships

between communities and energy authorities, creating projects that generate income and

pay back the capital cost over an appropriate period of time. However, the challenge is now

to reduce capital costs and embed the concepts and models in replication projects. This is

currently being undertaken in four further partnership projects in Kenya and Uganda. In

addition, strong and growing interest in adopting the e4D approach has emerged among

governments and the private sector as well as international funding agencies, pointing to

substantial funding to support the concept at scale.

Access to electrical power is fundamental to development and there are many global activities

endeavouring to achieve this goal. However, there is huge inertia in the establishment of

projects such as electrical mini-grids to support the development of rural communities6. Some

of the reasons could be attributed to:

n failure to understand the technological and economic issues surrounding mini-grids;

n regional contexts of project implementation;

n lack of capacity in the delivery institutions;

n insufficient understanding of affordability (ability to pay) and the value of electricity from

mini-grids compared to an unreliable utility grid; and

n lack of proper dissemination of the results of previous mini-grid projects, resulting in

lessons not being learned for the future.

International initiatives will need to take these issues into account so that sustainable projects

can be delivered to rural and poor communities at scale.

Acknowledgement

The programme e4D – a five-year project entitled Replication of Rural Decentralised off-grid Electricity

Generation through Technology and Business Innovation, or Energy for Development (e4D) for short

– is a multi-institutional research programme funded by the Research Councils UK and the UK

Government’s Department for International Development (DfID). The project consortium comprises

the University of Southampton and Imperial College, London. More details about the project and

partners may be found at: www.energy.soton.ac.uk and www.energyfordevelopment.net.

References

1. Millennium Development Goals. United Nations, New York, NY, USA.

www.un.org/millenniumgoals

2. Sustainable Development Goals. United Nations, New York, NY, USA.

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/index.php?menu=1565

3. IEA. 2011. World Energy Outlook 2011: Energy for All – Financing Access for the Poor. Special

early excerpt of the World Energy Outlook 2011. International Energy Agency, Paris, France.

http://tinyurl.com/ky6crnl


http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/resources/energydevelopment/energyaccessprojectionsto2030

5. www.energyfordevelopment.net; www.energy.soton.ac.uk

6. Bahaj, A.S. 2009. Delivering developing country growth: A new mechanistic approach driven by

the photovoltaic industry. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 13(8): 2142–2148.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032109000203

Author

Professor AbuBakr Bahaj is the Principal Investigator of the e4D programme and leads the 45-strongEnergy and Climate Change Division at the University of Southampton, where he progressed from aresearcher to a Personal Chair in Sustainable Energy. [email protected]

SMART VILLAGES

34

As the global population is still rising – albeit at a decreasing rate – we can expect an

additional billion or more people in the next 10 years and yet another billion by 20401.

Simple mathematical calculations would suggest that the number of off-grid global

poor will nearly double within a decade. And the world is also urbanising quite rapidly, thus

a considerable proportion of the marginal poor can be expected to relocate to densely

populated near-urban off-grid areas.

Successful off-grid energy solutions, however, can promote migration into developing rural

communities, thereby giving them semi-urban characteristics. The growth of a semi-urban

sector should not, however, be a cause for concern: in fact it can act as a buffer against

the unsustainable growth of mega-cities with expanding slums, and point towards more

sustainable models. In addition, the availability of off-grid electrical power for decent lighting,

pumping, refrigeration, sanitation, education, communication, audio-visual and entertainment

facilities, will enhance rural life and development2.

Current positionThe off-grid energy paradigm for electrification and development of the global rural population

must be closely associated with the evolution of clean, green and low-carbon power. It is

heartening to note the many ongoing and forward-looking rural projects such as Lighting

Africa, the Pico-PV Programme, Husk Power Systems, the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar

Mission and Lighting India, to name just a few. Millions of poor people in the countryside

now have access to electricity from photovoltaic (PV) modules alongside storage batteries that

can generate 12, 48 or even higher voltages to run household and community appliances.

Photovoltaic systems are favourable options

for meeting low energy demand – of less than

5 kilowatt hours per day – at steady loads in

remote locations that regularly receive good

solar flux. Solar lighting based on light-emitting

diode (LED) lamps and solar lanterns are not

Leapfrogging to sustainable power

R. Vasant Kumar

The growth of a semi-urban sectorcan act as a buffer against the

unsustainable growth of mega-cities and point towards more

sustainable models

35

only clean, efficient and reliable, but are cost

effective in competition with kerosene lamps.

There are also examples of rural electrifica -

tion where engine-generators – diesel-driven

gensets – are used for heavier loads along

with PV systems in hybrid configurations.

An excellent model of micro-grid development is Mera Gao Power, an enterprise operating

in partnership with USAID, which is able to build, own and operate micro-grids in rural

communities in India for costs reported to be below US$ 1,000 per village. In each village

setting they provide a centrally located solar panel combined with a bank of lead-acid

batteries for storing and then delivering energy when solar flux is not available3. Within a

period of two years, Mera Gao has been able to provide electricity to 500 off-grid villages,

providing 65,000 people with lighting and mobile-phone charging facilities.

Hydropower in mini-grids has been implemented in a few rural locations with access to flowing

water. Small wind turbines dependent on regular wind speeds higher than 15 kilometres

per hour have been installed in some locations for charging batteries, and turbines can also

lend themselves to larger infrastructure such as community-level local grids. However, as

renewable sources such as solar and wind power tend to be intermittent, energy availability

can be sporadic without the use of battery packs.

While biomass – mainly wood – has been an important source of energy for cooking in rural

communities for centuries, the new opportunity to generate combined heat and power using

generators has become a growing reality4. Several gasifiers have been made available

within rural communities, where they are run on locally available biomass such as rice husks,

wood chips, lentil or cotton stalks and other agro-residues including animal and kitchen

wastes. These gasifiers can power generators to provide heat and power for a community

or hamlet of typically 1,000–2,000 people. In another pioneering example in Uganda, it is

reported that maize mill owners produce and sell power to households via mini-grids or

battery charging.

New opportunitiesSolar energy is expected to contribute more than 10 per cent of the energy mix in large

developing countries and regions by 2022, driven by the goal of providing electricity to the

There is a great opportunity to skip highly polluting forms ofenergy and move straight to cleaner sources such as solar power

36

SMART VILLAGES

hundreds of millions of rural people who do not have it now. There is a great opportunity to

skip highly polluting forms of energy and move straight to cleaner sources such as solar

power. Leapfrogging in this way will avoid the large costs of transmission lines while benefiting

the environment and the health of the people. Off-grid electrification is an innovation that

should be harnessed for entrepreneurship and gainful employment. In addition, the very

villages that are expected to be the subject of this e-transformation are also the source of a

demographic dividend arising from a youthful population.

Energy storageRenewable energy technologies are not stand-alone solutions in the sense that solar PV and

wind-based systems require batteries for storage along with inverters to convert direct current

to alternating current, and battery chargers; gensets require a regular supply and storage of

diesel or petrol; and hydropower, while relatively economic to operate, is dependent on the

availability of fast-moving water throughout the year.

Technologies have evolved over many decades that allow us to convert the energy from

sunlight into electricity through the PV cell, but this then needs to be stored in batteries and

made available without interruption over a number of days. Battery packs based on lead-

acid batteries are already used in rural off-grid electrification schemes for storing energy from

renewable sources during peak production – and are also in demand in rural areas as a

direct source of electricity for lighting or phone charging.

Lead-acid batteries currently provide the most economical electrical storage technology.

Typically, these are designed for deep-discharge cycles that provide a small current for

many hours between two charge cycles, using up most of the stored energy. Batteries

store their energy as chemical energy in two separated electrodes. The separated

chemicals can then be made to react via an electrolyte, feeding back the chemical energy

as electrical energy.

Batteries can be charged and discharged over

hundreds or even thousands of cycles, after

which they become spent and cannot be used

again. Given that the discharge of lead into the

environment is not an option due to its toxicity,

batteries must be recovered and recycled to

The very villages that are expected to be the subject of e-transformation are also the

source of a demographic dividendarising from a youthful population


37

make new ones. The good news is that lead

is not difficult to recycle: in fact in developed

economies and in the urban space of rapidly

emerg ing econo mies, the infra structure for

collecting, dismantling and recycling batteries

is very successful.

RecyclingMature technology for recycling lead batteries is based on heavy investment in large high-

temperature furnaces backed by environmental control of discharged dust, water and gases.

Such relatively expensive and large-scale technologies are currently out side the practical

realm of the rural sector. Nevertheless, there is a thriving – though often poorly regulated or

even unauthorised – rural sector based on small-scale units and driven by the economic

incentive of the resale value of lead. Unfortunately, however, small-scale units are unable to

melt all of the lead compounds in the spent batteries, creating a massive potential health

burden if unrecovered lead compounds make their way into the local environment.

Where growth in rural off-grid electrification through renewables is envisaged, as in smart

villages, the demand for back-up storage batteries will intensify. A new technology for safely

recovering lead from batteries in small-scale units has recently been developed at the

University of Cambridge (Figure 1), precisely in anticipation of growth in battery usage spurred

by rural electrification through renewables5. This battery technology can also be used in

electric scooters, whose growth is anticipated as rural development progresses further. It is

possible to imagine that, in the near future, more than 95 per cent of all lead – more than

20 million tonnes per year by 2022 – will be used in vehicle batteries and for back-up and

emergency power supply, and most of this will be supplied by recovering lead from used

batteries. An environmentally sustainable process that can be operated on a small scale –

but also a large one – is already in demand and will further expand. The rural sector can lead

this new technology.

Since economy of scale is not a limiting factor, such a technology will provide an opportunity

for nucleating and retrofitting many rural, smaller-scale lead-battery industries in rapidly

growing economies. This new green cottage industry will have a major positive economic

impact for a large number of people dependent on lead batteries for their livelihood and for

the development of their local economies.

An environmentally sustainableprocess for recovering lead frombatteries that can be operated on a small scale – but also a large one– is already in demand

38

SMART VILLAGES

Can fuel cells play a role in the future?A fuel cell can generate electricity silently

and without combustion. The fuel stream

is fed into a compartment separated from

a second compartment into which air is

fed. The two streams never mix or burn,

but still electricity is pro duced at effi -

ciencies that can be more than 100 per

cent higher than turbine-based power

plants using the same fuel. In principle,

the fuel cells are similar to batteries. The

secret material in both cases is the

separator – an electrolyte – which allows

for silent but active communication be -

tween the fuel and the air (Figure 2).

Leaching(with bio-reagents)

Wastebattery

Newpaste

Crystallinecompounds

Newbattery

Pastepre-

cursor

Usedpaste

Metalliclead

Spentlead grid

Melting andrefining kettles

Combustion-calcination

Patent:PCT/GB2007/004222;

WO2008/056125R.V. Kumar, S. Sonmez,

V. Kotzeva

Energy

Residual battery paste is dissolved in an aqueous solution of carboxylic acids derived fromplants (leaching) to produce lead organic material which is converted by combustion at hightemperatures to lead monoxide and metallic lead for new battery paste preparation. Thelead grids are refined separately using heat from the first process. The use of acids fromplants results in a very low carbon footprint. Thus it is possible for rural users to send backto battery manufacturers value-added products for re-engineering.

Fuel Air

Excess fuel andwater

Unusedgases

Anode CathodeElectrolyte

H2

H2O

O2

O2-

O2-

e-

e-e

Figure 2 A fuel cell


39

Figure 1 Green battery recycling process5

Fuel cells operating at high temperatures can also generate heat along with electricity, thus

making them uniquely placed for heat-and-power solutions. A well designed combined heat-

and-power unit can harness heat that would otherwise be wasted, transferring it to a heating

fluid that can be used as a hot-water storage system.

An ideal fuel of the future is hydrogen, its main advantage being that the only waste product

of using it for electricity generation is water. We are not ready for a local hydrogen economy

as yet, and the storage and transportation of hydrogen is still a developing technology. But

increasing use of the fuel cell as an off-grid technology will result in a short lead-time for

adopting hydrogen fuel cells in the future.

If hydrogen is not an option for now, what will the fuel cell be in a rural setting? Biomass

gasifiers using agricultural waste are already in use in the rural sector for generating power

using conventional turbine technology. Fuels produced from biomass gasifiers contain

hydrogen and carbon monoxide, which can be directly fed to the fuel cells and efficiently

converted to electricity. The NonFerrous Materials Technology Development Centre (NFTDC)

based in Hyderabad, India, in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, UK, is currently

developing a low-cost fuel-cell stack suitable for rural application6.

Both the gasifiers and the fuel-cell stacks lend themselves to micro-grid operation and provide

incentives for community action, participation, employment and entrepreneurship. It is possible

either to distribute the fuel to households with small fuel-cell stacks for individual electricity

generation or to produce electricity at a community/hamlet level for distribution to households.

Biomass is a carbon-neutral source of power, as it embodies nature’s living carbon within

renewable stock and does not imperil the health of the carbon cycle – in contrast with the

“dead carbon” in fossil fuels. A biomass-based fuel using local wastes for generating electricity

through a fuel cell is a good model for moving up the energy ladder.

ConclusionsThe fact that the electricity sector is quietly undergoing a globally disruptive transformation

offers new opportunities for tackling electricity poverty. Rapid expansion of zero-emission

solar power backed by energy storage in batteries is set to take off, both within the grid

infrastructure and off the grid. Some estimates forecast 200 gigawatts of battery-backed solar

power by 2025, a fourfold increase on 2015 – and a fortyfold increase on 2005. At the heart

40

SMART VILLAGES

of this transformation is massive cost reduction in both solar cells and the rapidly advancing

technology of lithium-ion batteries. Over the next five years, Tesla’s new “gigafactory” in the

USA is expected to double the world’s lithium-ion battery supply for the stationary energy

storage market, a vital enabling technology at the dawn of the upcoming solar age.

Off-grid electrification of the global rural com munity should catalyse the economic and social

development of marginalised people. A number of available technologies as well as new

opportunities on the near horizon are considered to be viable and environmentally sound,

and will contribute to local economic development.

References

1. Stirling, A. 2014. Transforming power: Social science and the politics of energy change,

Energy Research & Social Science 1: 83–95. Elsevier, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

2. van Gevelt, T. 2014. Rural electrification and development in South Korea, Energy forSustainable Development 23: 179–187. Elsevier, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

3. Palit, D. and Sharma, K.R. 2014. Electrifying remote areas: Innovations by OASYS South

Asia Project, Energy Future Oct–Dec 2014: 22–27. http://tinyurl.com/o239h4j

4. Bhattacharyya, S.C. 2014. Viability of off-grid electricity supply using rice husk: A case study

from South Asia, Biomass and Bioenergy 68: 44–54. Elsevier, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

5. Kumar, R.V., Sonmez, S. and Kotzeva, V.P. 2007. Lead Recycling, PCT filed on 6 Nov 2007;

PCT/GB2007/004222; EU 07824458.9; RU 2009117620; US 12/513707; CN 200780041628.4;

IN 2216/KOLNP/2009.

6. K. Balasubramanian, Director, NonFerrous Materials Technology Development Centre,

Hyderabad, India, pers. comm., February 2015. www.nftdc.res.in

Author

Dr R. Vasant Kumar of the Department of Materials Science, University of Cambridge, has beenconducting world-leading research in materials chemistry reactions at the cutting edge of newapplications within an ecological calculus. [email protected]


41

Electricity first made its appearance in the region in 1894, when two prominent local

Selangor-based Malayan entrepreneurs, Loke Yew and Thamboosamy Pillay, started

to use electric pumps for tin mining. By the mid-1920s, several small generating

plants had been established using a variety of fuels including low-grade coal, local wood,

charcoal and bunker oil. A few hydro-electric power stations were also constructed, the

biggest being the Chenderoh Dam (40.5 megawatts) in Perak and the smallest generating

just 2–3 megawatts.

For rural Malaysia, the “let there be light” journey began about five decades ago. Several

initiatives to upgrade the lives of the villagers in Malaya, as Peninsular Malaysia was

then known – with both Sabah and Sarawak joining Malaysia later – were introduced by

the British government. The health conditions of rural villages were studied as early as

1948, funded by the United Nations1. Cooperatives were encouraged among small traders

and village industries such as sawmills and fishing products; the Cooperative College

was established; and the Rural Industrial Development Authority (RIDA) was formed in

1951 with a programme to provide economic support and assistance to Malay farmers

and rural inhabitants.

Rigorous studies of rural poverty by Royal Professor Ungku Aziz from the University of

Malaya from 1952 to 1988 revealed that the per-person productivity of the region’s

agriculture lagged behind that of more developed nations due to a lack of technology

and infrastructure, the vicious cycle of debt,

and an exploitative marketing mechanism. By

the 1950s, elec tricity was already available,

but mainly in the larger towns and tin mines.

After Independence in 1957, and the formation

of Malaysia incorporating Sabah and Sarawak

Smart villages –the Malaysian approach

Ahmad Zaidee Laidin

Malaysia has come a long way with rural development, aimed atdeveloping physical infrastructureand providing extensive basicamenities to rural residents

42

in 1963, the economic sectors of rubber planta tions and tin mining were still largely owned

and controlled by British and Chinese capital. The traditional agricultural sectors, on the

other hand, were engaged by small-scale rice-growing farmers and smallholders including

the Malays and other indigenous people. In 1957, out of a population of 6.5 million in the

Peninsula, 73.4 per cent lived in rural areas, and Tunku Abdul Rahman, leader of the newly

independent nation, assigned his Deputy Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak to take charge of

rural development.

Electricity and rural developmentMalaysia has come a long way with rural development, aimed at developing physical

infrastructure and providing extensive basic amenities to rural residents. Figure 1 summarises

measures taken by Malaysia over the last six decades to bring rural society into line with the

development of the country as a whole2. The Malayan Emergency was declared by the British

Administration on 31 January 1948 and the newly independent Malayan government

declared its end on 31 July 1960, triggered by the Malayan Communist Party who wanted to

establish a communist government in Malaya.

The Red Book Plan was launched in 1960 to be a parallel development programme for

all rural areas. The people and leaders were involved not only in the implementation process

of development but more importantly in the planning process itself. This transformational

experience in rural development saw the village-level establishment of infrastructure such

as electricity, water, radio and television, roads and transportation in tandem with other

services such as health clinics, post services and police stations.

The constant monitoring of the numerous rural projects was not an easy task. The Malayan

government adopted a special strategy called the Operations Room Technique (ORT),

which focused on winning the hearts and minds of the rural people. It demanded almost

military discipline in reporting on the progress of the various projects, and there was

a clear chain-of-command structure. The

Rural Development Committee comprised

the “doers” and the “recipients”, with the direct

involvement of officers from the relevant

government departments. The Deputy Prime

Minister himself made spot checks, espe cially

on those villages that lagged behind.

Smart villages – the Malaysian approach

The current GovernmentTransformation Programme heralds

an era of science, technology andinnovation with the mindset of adeveloped country in rural areas

43

As a first step, off-grid generation using diesel gensets and providing a 12-hour supply

from 6.00 pm to 6.00 am were installed in many parts of Malaya. The priority was to light

up the domestic houses in the villages. This signalled that the government was bringing

about a visible change to the lives of rural people. Before the advent of television, radio

broadcasts were a very useful tool of psychological warfare against the communist terrorists,

and the Malayan Film Unit, too, made numerous visits to the villages to educate the people

Context

Rural developmentstrategies andprogrammes

Colonial policyof resourceexploitation

Economic growth(laissez-faireapproach)

Basic infrastructure and social facilities

Modernisation anddiversification ofcrops

Communitydevelopment

Red book

Infrastructurefor resourceexploitation

Newvillageschemes

New Economic Policy(OPP1)

Eradication of poverty and restructuring of

society

New land developmentschemes

Regional development

Integrated in situdevelopment

Orang Asli Regrouping schemes

Independence Malaysia

1960 1970 1980

1st 5YP 2nd 5YP 1st MP 2nd MP 3rd MP

5YP:

MP:OPP:

GTP:

Malayan Five-Year PlanMalaysia PlanOutline PerspectivePlanGovernment TransformationProgramme

Figure 1 Malaysia's path to rural development2

44

SMART VILLAGES

regarding the various development objectives of the government. These tools were used

for introducing rural electrification.

The rural electrification programme, mainly funded by the federal government, played

a pivotal role in rural development. As the grid system continued to expand, the diesel

sets were dismantled and the villages connected to a 24-hour supply. A review of rural

New Economic Policy(OPP1)

Eradication of poverty and restructuring of

society

New land developmentschemes

Regional development

Integrated in situdevelopment

Orang Asli Regrouping schemes

New approach tovillage and ruraldevelopment

Rural growthcentre

New Development Policy (OPP2)

National Vision Policy (OPP3)

Growth withequity

Building a resilientand competitivenation

Sustainable ruraldevelopment

GTP 1, 2, and 3

New philosophy andstrategy of ruraldevelopment (a developed, attractive and profitable rural environment)

Gerakan DesaWawasan

Eradicate hardcorepoverty

Gerakan DayaWawasan

Improve qualityof life

Expand infra-structure and amenities toremote areas

Zero hardcore poverty

GovernmentTransformationProgramme

Improve rural development

21st CenturyVillage

1980 1990 2000 2010 2020

4th MP 5th MP 6th MP 7th MP 8th MP 9th MP 10th MP 11th MP

Vision 2020


45

electrification was made in July 1978 for the Fourth Malaysia Plan. It was envisaged that

rural electrification for Peninsular Malaysia would be completed by the year 2000. However,

Sabah and Sarawak took a little while longer, primarily because the rural population was

even less accessible than those in the peninsula.

In 1990, the National Electricity Board was directed by the then Prime Minister, Dato’ Sri

Dr Mahathir Mohammad, to look at mini-hydro plants as a source of off-grid electricity. Overall,

the various attempts at rural electrification were peppered with more successes than

failures, and it was noted that rural industries using electricity were somewhat limited.

Realising this, the state governments, along with the federal level, organised various

programmes and activities to further develop small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in rural

areas by providing assistance in terms of production, product development, creating new

products, management, funding, technology, promotion and marketing, and building business

chains, to cite a few initiatives.

The Government Transformation Programme (2010–2020) for rural developmentThe building blocks of the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) introduced in 2010

were designed to provide a roadmap towards achieving the status of a developed country

by 20203. For rural development, GTP 1.0 (2010–2012) focused on implementing rural basic

infrastructure (RBI) such as road improvement, access to clean water, 24-hour electricity and

infrastructure maintenance. GTP 2.0 (2012–2015) targeted the more interior and remote

sites. GTP 3.0 (2016–2020 and beyond) will herald the era of science, technology and

innovation with the mindset of a developed country in rural areas.

In the context of electrification, considerable success has been achieved in both established

and new villages. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimated that in 2012, only 1.3

per cent of the Malaysian rural population remained without electricity4. Statistically, from

2013 to 2015, 47,840 rural houses would be connected to 24-hour supply3. The breakdown

is as follows: Peninsular Malaysia 4,200

houses; Sabah 11,886 houses; Sarawak

31,754 houses.

Off-grid solar hybrid systems have been

successfully installed in several parts of

Malaysia, particularly on islands. However, the

Small projects involving rural people have demonstrated thatbasic IT skills can be acquired in a very short time, and enhancequality of life in many ways

46

SMART VILLAGES

more remote villages – 0.5 per cent of the

population in Peninsular Malaysia and 5.0

per cent in Sabah and Sarawak – present

greater challenges, as bringing the indig -

enous population into the mainstream of

development requires psychological and

anthropological acumen and continuous

education, besides funding and supporting infrastructure. Indubitably, electrification would

open wider opportunities for learning and access to education and business.

21st century initiativesA recent bold new initiative is the 21st Century Village (21CV) – a programme that

encourages youth to remain in the villages (kampungs) and to work and start businesses insitu. The overall target was to create 132 new 21CVs, initially by 2015, and now extended to

2020 depend ing on the availability of funds. Activities in the 21CVs encompass a number of

economic sub-sectors including agriculture, tourism, plantations and cottage industries. An

esti mated figure of about 37,800 households or 189,000 people are expected to benefit from

this programme3. They are selected by the state government from identified rural poor as

well as the unemployed.

The 21CVs have and will be developed using the following initiatives:

n 39 state-driven modern integrated farms;

n 15 private-sector-driven large-scale fruit and vegetable farms;

n 39 enhanced village cooperatives in tourism, plantation and cottage industries;

n 39 encouraging selected university, technical and vocational graduates as youth

entrepreneurs.

The selection of the villages was based on those that have land available, those with

successful cooperatives operating businesses, and those with potential or unique resources

that can be developed into sustainable rural businesses. They will be evenly distributed

between Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak, with funding from federal, state and

private-sector sources. The government has spent MYR 145 million (US$ 39 million) on

projects for the development of basic infrastructure in rural areas under GTP 2.0, of

which MYR 137 million (US$ 37 million) was allocated for the 21CV and Desa Lestari

(Sustainable Rural Area) programmes, while another MYR 8 million (US$ 2.2 million) is for

The success of Malaysia’s 21CVprojects should convince

implementers that a holisticapproach should be taken with

electricity as the underlying enabler

47


large-scale farming programmes. The outcome is a jump-start to bring the rural areas into

a suburban culture.

21st century remote villagesRemote villages need to be addressed differently. The Institute of Social Informatics and

Technological Innovations at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) has applied a four-stage

holistic approach. Social scientists are involved in community engagement and needs

analysis in the first phase; followed by the involvement of technologists, economists and

business academics in the planning and design process in the second; technology access

and deployment in phase three; and finally evaluation and reflection involving all the

disciplines in phase four5.

An instructive example is given by a project in Bario, Sarawak (Figure 2). To reach it from Miri

used to take a three-day boat journey followed by a four-week trek in dense tropical forest.

Nowadays, you can reach it in an hour in a small plane or in 18 hours travelling along logging

roads. In spite of considerable urban migration, the Kelabit, an indigenous people of the

Sarawak/North Kalimantan highlands, numbering about 1,200 individuals, still live in long -

houses and a number of smaller houses in 17 widely dispersed villages around Bario.

SMART VILLAGES

48

Figure 2 Improved livelihoods in isolated communities

A UNIMAS project bringing information technology to isolated communities in the rice-growing region around Bario has offered villagers opportunities for economic activitiesincluding handicrafts and ecotourism.

Bario

UNIMAS embarked on several projects in Bario. One was a research initiative to introduce

information and communication technologies (ICT), VSATs (Very Small Aperture Terminals),

telephones and internet access to villagers. A direct outcome of this technology is an

increase in both domestic and international tourists to Bario. As a matter of fact, a National

Ecotourism Plan for Malaysiawas published in 20118. Its implementation – by giving villagers

the opportunity to provide modest but clean food and safe accommodation as well as guides

and handicraft production – has boosted local incomes.

Another project that is worthy of note, entitled Ngerabit eLamai, was completed in 2012 at

Long Lamai, Sarawak, where the population largely belongs to the Penan community6. These

two projects should convince implementers that to make the necessary impact, a holistic

approach should be taken with electricity as the underlying enabler (Box 1).

Although the state government had funded several renewable energy schemes such as

micro-hydro and solar hybrid projects, the unmet demand opens up opportunities for non-

governmental organisations (NGOs) to participate in the electrification effort through micro-

hydro sets and the like. However, they face challenges from the authorities. Initial investment,

although lower than when the government undertakes the projects, is still substantial and

sustainability is a real issue. Nevertheless, the government may want to consider more

engagement and strategic partnership with these NGOs to carry out some of the projects.


Box 1 Advantages brought about by electricity beyond lighting and basic comforts5

n Education, encompassing students, teachers and the community.

n Preservation of culture, oral tradition and traditional knowledge, including ease of

documentation through ICT.

n E-commerce, including ecotourism, the offer of accommodation for home-stay, selling of

handicrafts and the famous Bario rice.

n Agricultural advances, including gathering, classifying and sharing information regarding

Bario rice.

n E-health, enabling medical information exchange between Bario, Miri and Kuching.

n Empowerment of the community through connection with the outside world.

n ICT, with satellite internet access enhancing the telephone and wireless network.

49

One such example is already taking place in Sabah. The Sabah Women Entrepreneurs

and Professionals Association (SWEPA) selected a 40-year-old illiterate grandmother

to go to the Barefoot College in Tilonia, India, for six months to learn how to install, repair

and maintain solar-cell renewable energy equipment in her village, serving some 100

villagers8. In short, opportunities exist for experimenting with several alternatives, with a

view to bringing down the cost and promoting the latent energy and voluntarism of NGOs.

Nevertheless, electricity has its inherent dangers and safety cannot be compromised.

Hence rules and regulations relating to competent operation and maintenance must be

adhered to at all times.

ConclusionWhile broad sweeps of economic develop ment are covered by government trans formation

initiatives, truly meaningful and sustainable rural development also calls for creative ideas

and innovative inputs from ecologists, scientists, anthropologists, psychologists, experts on

arts and culture, tourism operators, engineers and geologists, apart from the traditional

development economists and agriculturists. The UNIMAS model is worthy of serious

consideration in this respect, not only in Malaysia but also in other developing countries.

Small projects involving rural people have already demonstrated that basic IT skills can

be acquired in a very short time, and they have enhanced the quality of life in more ways

than one. Ecotourism has been successfully enhanced albeit in a limited way. Information

regarding diseases affecting humans, plants and animals could easily be made available

through wider IT usage. Even teachers in remote villages can be trained through e-learning.

For Malaysia, this is ideally the new horizon; this should be the most apt agenda for the

GTP 3.0 for 2016–2020 and beyond. The smart village concept promises economic

success in the rural landscape. However, the 21CV model is expensive and requires

competent management. Consequently, other approaches have to be continuously

investigated and piloted in parallel.

The eradication of poverty in rural areas is a multi-level and multi-faceted challenge. It

is a never-ending pursuit. It demands dedication and attention at the very top of the

administration. It dwells on education and training for the villagers; it promotes SMEs amongst

them, using localised, available raw materials for development into marketable products;

it also encourages ecotourism and agriculture, all the while leveraging on the progress of

electrification in the country.

SMART VILLAGES

50

References

1. Burgess, R.C. and Laidin, A.M. 1950. A Report on the State of Health, the Diet and theEconomic Conditions of Groups of People in the Lower Income Levels of Malaya. Institute for

Medical Research Report No. 13, Kuala Lumpur.

2. Ngah, I. 2010. Rural Development in Malaysia, CIPD Mimeograph No. 4. Faculty of Built

Environment, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

3. Government Transformation Programme. 2013. Improving rural development, in: TheRoadmap 2.0: Catalysing Transformation for a Brighter Future. pp. 170–189. Jabatan Perdana

Menteri, Putrajaya, Malaysia.


5. Bala, P. 2015. E-Bario Project: A Research Project Implemented by Universiti MalaysiaSarawak (UNIMAS). Supported by MIMOS Bhd Malaysia, IDRC, Telekom Malaysia, and the

Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. SMART Villages Workshop, Kuching, Sarawak,

Malaysia, 2015.

6. Yeo, A.W. 2015. Case Study: Long Lamai Socio-Economic Transformation via SystemicHolistic Interdisciplinary Participatory Approach. SMART Villages Workshop, Kuching, Sarawak,

Malaysia, 2015.

7. Ministry of Culture, Arts and Tourism. 2011. Malaysian National Ecotourism Plan.

8. Abdullah, H.W. 2015. SWEPA & Barefoot College. SMART Villages Workshop, Kuching,

Sarawak, Malaysia, 2015.

Author

Tan Sri Ir Ahmad Zaidee Laidin FASc is Secretary General of the Academy of Sciences Malaysiaand chairs its Energy Task Force. He is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Unversiti TeknikalMalaysia Melaka, and a Board Member of the Sustainable Energy Development Authority ofMalaysia. [email protected]

51


In 2007, I was invited by a colleague to teach a global technology course to Princeton students

at the Mpala Research Centre in Kenya. This is a wildlife research centre located in the

Laikipia district of Kenya, which has a population of about 250,000 people in a land area

about twice the size of Israel. It seemed like a perfect opportunity to explore ways of using

technology to address the development challenges associated with energy access and

waterborne disease. I therefore accepted the offer, with the hope that I would have the

opportunity to trial some of the technologies that had been developed or tested in my lab1,2,3.

Defining a needOn arrival in Mpala, I noticed that most of the Kenyan staff lived in two village communities

with no access to electricity or potable water. In the absence of an electricity grid, most of

the huts relied on kerosene lanterns, resulting in environmental pollution and about an

80 per cent incidence of pulmonary health problems, with most of the children in the village

suffering from asthma. They also had waterborne diseases from drinking contaminated

water from the local river, and there were serious concerns about the potential for bone

deformities and the pitting of teeth that could occur due to the consumption of fluoride-

contaminated water4 from the local borehole.

Inspired by the challenges of life in Mpala village, I asked my Princeton students to talk

to the villagers to learn more about the role that technology could play in addressing their

basic needs. Somewhat surprisingly, the vil lagers identified electricity access as the

most serious issue. Similarly, the Mpala clinic

identified electricity access as their biggest

hurdle in preserving much-needed vaccines

and medicines neces sary for the prevention

of major diseases across the Laikipia district.

We therefore decided to focus on ways of

developing sustainable solutions to problems

Can energy access improvehealth?

Wole Soboyejo

The health impact of solar lanterns was much greater thananticipated, resulting in muchlower levels of pulmonary health problems

52

of energy and water, using Mpala village as

a model of a rural village in a developing

country. This essay presents the results of

our efforts and their implications for rural

communities across the world.

In the case of access to electricity, our ques -

tion naire studies revealed that the homes in the village had energy budgets of about US$ 4

per month, while the average income of individuals was between US$ 1 and US$ 2 per day.

This meant that any alternative solutions had to cost about US$ 4 a month or less if they

were to be competitive with the kerosene lanterns that had become part of the local culture.

Meeting the challengeAfter some out-of-the-box thinking, we realised that a conventional system involving a 100-

watt solar cell and a 12–24-volt battery with a cheap charge controller and inverter could

offer no solution2 because of its relatively high initial cost – approximately US$ 500–1,000

– when compared to the average monthly income of about US$ 60. We needed a system

that cost no more than US$ 4 a month over 12 months.

To meet the US$ 4-a-month target, the solution was a solar-powered lantern with a 2-watt

solar panel and a 6-volt motorcycle battery. Although many of the villagers wanted us to give

this system to them for free, we realised that the lanterns would not be properly cared for

unless they had been paid for, so every home in the village was given the option of financing

a solar lantern over a period of 12 months. This resulted in the introduction of solar lanterns

into all 200 homes of the village. The income from the lanterns was used to introduce ceramic

water filters3 that further improved the health and well-being of the people.

After a year, the health impact of the solar lanterns was much greater than we had anticipated.

First, we found that they essen tially eliminated the use of kerosene lanterns, resulting in

much lower levels of pulmonary health problems. We also devel oped ways of converting

old kerosene lanterns to solar power, enabling the local people to convert their lamps at a

cost of about US$ 25 per lamp.

Encouraged by the success of the solar lanterns, we worked with the people of Mpala, the

College of Art and Design in Pasadena and the Nomadic Peoples Trust to develop a solar-

There is a need to finance the initial acquisition of sustainable

solutions when the initial costs ofthe products are greater than the

consumers’ available cash flow

Can energy access improve health?

53

powered refrigeration system that was mounted onto a bamboo frame on a camel. The

system enabled the Nomadic Peoples Trust to use community-medicine approaches to

provide refrigerated vaccines and medicines to the Laikipia community of about 250,000

people, and it is now being used in their monthly trips across Laikipia district.

ConclusionThe above examples show that villages such as Mpala can be provided with funds to develop

demand-driven sustainable solutions to their energy needs, and they also show that the users

value the solutions and are willing to take care of them when they are asked to pay for them.

There is, however, a need for funds to finance the initial acquisition of sustainable solutions

when the initial costs of the products are greater than the available cash flow of the

consumers. Such funds, which can be administered through local banks and/or cooperatives,

Introduction of a solar lantern to Mpala village.

54

SMART VILLAGES

W. S

oboyejo

can also be used to purchase water filters for removing the microbial pathogens that cause

diseases such as dysentery, diarrhoea and typhoid, which kill up to 20 per cent of children

in rural villages.

In addition, the combination of solar energy and refrigeration can be used to preserve

vaccines in rural communities that cannot be reached by jeeps or landrovers. In such cases,

rugged animals such as camels and donkeys can be used to transport the systems to the

communities that need them. Further work is clearly needed to develop evidence-based

strategies for scaling these approaches into policies that could improve the lives of the

1.3 billion people that live without access to electricity.

References

1. Soboyejo, W.O. and Taylor, R. 2008. Off-grid solar for rural development, Materials Research Bulletin 33(4): 368–371. Elsevier, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

2. Otiti, T. and Soboyejo, W.O. 2006. Limited contribution of photovoltaic energy to the

economic development of Sub-Saharan Africa, Perspectives on Global Development andTechnology 5: 69–80. Brill, Leiden, Netherlands.

3. Plappally, A., Chen, H., Ayinde, W., Alayande, S., Usoro, A., Friedman, K.C., Dare, E.,

Ogunyale, T., Yakub, I., Leftwich, M., Malatesta, K., Rivera, R., Brown, L., Soboyejo, A.

and Soboyejo, W. 2011. A field study on the use of clay ceramic water filters and influences

on the general health in Nigeria, Health Behavior and Public Health 1: 1–14. Academy

Journals. http://www.asciencejournal.net/asj/index.php/HBPH/article/view/109/pdf_37

4. Ismaiel, Y., Plappally, A., Leftwich, M., Malatesta, K., Friedman, K.C., Rivera, R.,

Soboyejo, A.B.O. and Soboyejo, W.O. 2009. Effects of porosity on the filtration characteristics

of porous clays, Journal of Environmental Engineering. American Society of Civil Engineers,

Reston, VA, USA.

Author

Professor Wole Soboyejo served as President of the African University of Science and Technology,Abuja, until 2014, and is now based in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineeringat Princeton University. [email protected]

Can energy access improve health?

55

In spite of much technological progress, many countries as well as communities within

countries suffer from food insecurity; one in seven people in the developing world remains

food insecure.

Food security involves concurrent attention to availability, which is a function of production;

access, which is a function of purchasing power; and absorption, which is a function of

nutritional literacy, alongside attention to clean drinking water. Food security also involves

steps to overcome protein hunger arising from the inadequate consumption of grain legumes,

milk or animal products that are rich in protein content. In addition, there is the need to attend

to micronutrient malnutrition caused by deficiency in the diet of iron, iodine, zinc, vitamin A

and vitamin B12, among others. This is why, in programmes designed to ensure the health

of the population, overcoming under- and malnutrition to ensure food security and the

provision of non-food necessities like sanitation and primary health care need integrated

attention. This is particularly so in off-grid villages where such provisions are sparse and

agricultural activities are frequently at a subsistence level.

Food security is a concern for countries at low levels of economic development since a fall

in food consumption may have serious irreversible nutritional consequences for both present

and future generations. Off-grid villages are particularly vulnerable because the lack of

electricity means a reduced capacity to run equipment such as machinery needed for

cultivation and irrigation, and an inability to develop small-scale village industries locally1.

However, an off-grid village does not really

mean a no-energy village. For years, small -

holder farmers in less developed countries,

many living in off-grid villages, have relied on

farm animals for draught purposes, supple -

mented with the labour of rural women and

men belonging to family farms as well as

Energy provision and foodsecurity in off-grid villages

M.S. Swaminathan and P.C. Kesavan

A fall in food consumption may have serious irreversiblenutritional consequences for both present and futuregenerations

56

landless families. This means that even today there is hardly a village in India without some

form of energy, albeit limited. Villages in northeastern India have a shortage of energy for

farm operations due to the insufficient number of farm animals. According to the Central Rice

Research Institute, Cuttack, India, the yields of paddy in eastern India remain low due to

inadequate bullock power. The situation can be remedied either by increasing animal power

or by mechanisation. A smart village, therefore, would adopt and encompass some of the

promising new renewable technologies that could lead to sustainable energy provision,

increased food production and value-added outputs.

Modern agricultureWith modern agriculture, particularly after the green revolution era of the 1960s, a heavy

dependence on energy has developed. There is a strong positive correlation between energy

input and food output, and from the last century onwards productivity advance has been

Box 1 The dangers of excessive use of fossil-fuel-based inputs

Intensive cultivation of land without conservation of soil fertility and soil structure wouldlead ultimately to the springing up of deserts. Irrigation without arrangements for drainagewould result in soils getting alkaline or saline. Indiscriminate use of pesticides, fungicidesand herbicides could cause adverse changes in biological balance as well as lead to anincrease in the incidence of cancer and other diseases, through the toxic residues present inthe grains or other edible parts. Unscientific tapping of underground water would lead to therapid exhaustion of this wonderful capital resource left to us through ages of natural farming.The rapid replacement of numerous locally adapted varieties with one or two high yieldingstrains in large contiguous areas would result in the spread of serious diseases capable ofwiping out entire crops, as happened prior to the Irish potato famine of 1845 and the Bengalrice famine of 1942. Therefore, the initiation of exploitative agriculture without a properunderstanding of the various consequences of every one of the changes introduced intotraditional agriculture and without first building up a proper scientific and training base tosustain it, may only lead us into an era of agricultural disaster in the long run, rather than to an era of agricultural prosperity.

M.S. Swaminathan, Indian Science Congress, Varanasi, January 1968

Energy provision and food security in off-grid villages

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58

related to the industrial production and consumption of mineral fertilisers and chemical

pesticides. Agricultural mechanisation, post-harvest drying and processing, as well as

groundwater pumping, make heavy demands on energy supply. According to estimates from

the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the dependence of agriculture

on fossil energy means that the global average energy require ment to produce 1 tonne of

cereal is about 85 kilograms of oil equivalent (kgoe); it can be as low as 20 kgoe per tonne

in Africa through traditional methods, and as high as 116 kgoe per tonne in Western countries

through industrialisation. A similar picture has been seen with maize grown in the USA

or in Mexico2.

The intensification and industrialisation of agriculture in developed countries has given rise

to an increasing dependence on fossil fuels for providing nutrients for crops and also for

Renewable and decentralised energy services could provide India’s off-grid villages with themotive power required to supplement bullock pulling power and ensure a food-secure future.

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groundwater extraction and irrigation. This has raised concerns about environmental issues

and greenhouse gas emissions, as illustrated by predictions made in 1968 (Box 1).

Paradoxically, government agencies continue to promote the use of fossil energy in the

tropics and sub-tropics, which are richly endowed with solar energy. So the vision of a smart

village described in this collection of essays foresees an alternative scenario – renewable

energy as a catalyst for development. It resonates with the idea of sustainable processes

for rural development, a concept developed some years ago in the context of an evergreen

revolution involving increases in productivity in perpetuity without the ecological harm

referred to in Box 13.

Sustainable food production Evergreen revolution technology involves integrated natural resources management

and limited use of fossil-fuel-based energy. Smart villages for those who live off grid

should, therefore, involve a low-carbon development pathway. For this we should promote

the use of biomass for electrification, biogas, wind, solar power and ocean thermal energy

(where oceans are nearby). In addition, increasing the productivity of crops through

the efficient use of energy and advances in plant breeding should be associated with

steps for feeding the crop in a sustainable manner. Breeding and feeding for high yield

should go together.

The adoption of renewable and sustainable energy sources for food security needs to

consider the impact on land and biodiversity. Recently, Brook and Bradshaw4 evaluated the

land-use, emissions, climate and cost implications of energy sources such as coal, gas,

nuclear, biomass, hydro, wind and solar. The analyses showed that nuclear and wind energy

had the highest benefit-to-cost ratio; the new-generation nuclear reactor technologies that

are designed to fully recycle waste and incorporate passive safety systems seem quite

dependable for generating sustainable clean and safe energy.

While nuclear energy is environmentally

benign and can supply electricity to industries

as well as households over long periods of

time without also generating greenhouse

gases, the impact of chronic doses of

radiation on human health will continue to

Agricultural dependence on fossilenergy means that the global

average energy require ment toproduce 1 tonne of cereal is about

85 kilograms of oil equivalent

59

demand careful study. Its use for agriculture, however, is limited, particularly for villages

remote from the grid where, as mentioned previously, greater food security will depend on

renewable bioenergy supplied by wind, solar, biomass and hydro, or relevant hybrid

combinations. Nonetheless, coastal villages in India, with its extensive coastline of about

7,600 kilometres, could benefit from nuclear energy since the nuclear power plants are

mostly located in the coastal regions – but this will depend on the adequacy of grid

infrastructure.

Alternative means of providing nitrogen for plant growth have long been a dream of plant

breeders, since they would reduce the need for energy-dependent chemical fertilisers.

Leguminous crops like Sesbania rostrata have stem nodules that can enrich the soil

by about 80 kilograms of nitrogen per hectare. The African tree Faidherbia albida is ideal

to fix nitrogen in its leaves, which are subsequently incorporated into the soil. Uniquely,

these “fertiliser factories in the field” do not compete with the crops for light, water and

various soil nutrients other than nitrogen. Chinese and Japanese agricultural scientists

have developed strategies to harness the organic matter in the soil, which contains

microorganisms rich in phosphorus, potassium and several micronutrients, to enhance

the productivity of crops with little in the way of energy-consuming chemical inputs4,5.

Entrepreneurs who promote eco-agriculture and the evergreen revolution referred to

previously provide livelihoods to the landless women in using their manual energy largely

to produce vermicompost, green manure, biofertilisers and biopesticides.

Therefore, the vision for an off-grid smart village from an Indian perspective is one that

achieves food security by using pathways of production that depend increasingly on biological

rather than chemical inputs. In this way, renewable and decentralised energy services will

provide the motive power required for machinery and irrigation, the development of cold-chain

infra structure to reduce waste, and the integration of communication technologies to help with

pest management, soil health and improved market access. Entrepreneurial initiatives directed

towards eco-agriculture will enhance food pro -

duction in off-grid villages, whether by “fertiliser

trees” and biogas plants, or water-harvesting

structures such as Jal Kund, a simple and low-

cost rainwater-harvesting structure which has

been developed for storing rainwater in the

upper terrace conditions of northeast India.

SMART VILLAGES

An off-grid smart village is one thatachieves food security by usingpathways of production thatdepend increasingly on biologicalrather than chemical inputs

60

Sustainable food security is a must, and

we have to produce more and more food

grains and other agricultural products from

diminish ing available per-person land and

water resources alongside expanding biotic

and abiotic stresses. The smart village

keeps in mind the urgent need to foster

the evergreen revolution pathway of ensuring food for all and forever. The strategy of

renewable energy provision will be crucial for achieving these goals.

To sum up, for a healthy and productive life we need physical and economic access to a

balanced diet, clean drinking water, sanitation, primary health care and nutritional literacy.

The concept of food security was in the past restricted to adequate calorie consumption,

while nutrition security involved giving attention to all forms of hunger, namely calorie

adequacy, clean drinking water, and avoiding a paucity of protein and other hidden hunger.

Today, food security and energy security are even more closely related, but they need the

underpinning of environmental security and sustainability, particularly as our attention turns

towards those who live in off-grid villages and their need to achieve food security using

appropriate modern technologies.

References

1. Chang, H-J. 2012. Rethinking public policy in agriculture: Lessons from history, distant and

recent, in Chang, H-J. (ed.) Public Policy and Agricultural Development. ISS Studies in Rural

Livelihoods, pp. 3–68. Routledge, London, UK.

2. The World Bank. 2008. World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development. The World Bank, Washington, DC, USA.

3. Swaminathan, M.S. 2010. From Green to Evergreen Revolution – Indian Agriculture:Performance and Challenges. Academic Foundation, New Delhi, India.

4. Brook, B.W. and Bradshaw, C.J.A. 2014. Key role for nuclear energy in global

biodiversity conservation, Conservation Biology. doi:10.1111/cobi.12433. John Wiley, Hoboken,

NJ, USA.


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The smart village keeps in mind the urgent need to foster

the evergreen revolution pathway of ensuring food for

all and forever

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5. Kesavan, P.C. and Swaminathan, M.S. 2006. From green revolution to evergreen

revolution: Pathways and terminologies, Current Science 90: 145–146. Current Science

Association, Bengaluru, India.

Authors

Professor M.S. Swaminathan, Emeritus Chairman and Chief Mentor of the M.S. SwaminathanResearch Foundation, was acclaimed by TIME magazine as one of the 20 most influential Asiansof the 20th century and acknowledged by the United Nations Environment Programme as “thefather of economic ecology”. [email protected]

Professor P.C. Kesavan is on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Radiation Biology

and the Journal of Radiological Protection. Since 1999 he has worked in the area of sustainabilityscience, sustainable agriculture and rural development, and his current focus is on climate changeand sustainable agriculture. [email protected]

The right to vote is generally considered a fundamental right of each citizen,

underpinning all other basic rights – to food, education and security. And the world’s

most enthusiastic voters live in India’s 650,000 villages. At the heart of India’s

democratic system have been regular elections that now see the participation of more than

100 political parties and the largest electorate in the world, currently numbering some 815

million people. The most dedicated voters are not the well-educated urban middle classes

but the poorest, most discriminated against and least educated, mainly in villages and small

towns, where turnout rates can be well over 80 per cent. Further, the more local the election,

the higher the turnout, bucking global trends: in rural India, the turnout at neighbourhood

elections is close to 100 per cent. Contrary to what many predicted in 1947, when India

gained independence and chose to become a democratic republic granting universal suffrage

to all its citizens, poverty and illiteracy have not hampered democracy.

At the most fundamental level, there is tremendous pressure not to waste a vote, as illustrated

by a simple procedure carried out by the Electoral Commission of India. In all Indian elections,

each voter has their left index finger marked with a short vertical line in indelible black ink.

This procedure is carried out to prevent fraud, but it has also made it impossible to lie about

whether one has voted. So it creates peer pressure to go and vote, particularly in the little

world of the village, for not to do so results in suspicion about the abstention. Not losing face

in small rural communities, whether among kin or party workers, is an important factor

explaining high turnout rates.

Energy to vote More recently, India’s electronic voting machines

have revolutionised the electoral process. Over

the last two decades, a series of closely mon -

itored pilot projects have taken the complex

process of casting a vote away from a paper

Smart villages for smart voters

Mukulika Banerjee

Not losing face in small ruralcommunities, whether among kinor party workers, is an important

factor explaining India’s highelection turnout rates

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ballot to very basic electronic machines, often powered by batteries, which the electorate of

India has accepted and which have proved to be both fraud- and fool-proof. India is now a

world leader in demonstrating how a simple but smart machine can revolutionise the running

of a political system through accuracy and veracity, making it accessible to the illiterate, the

innumerate and the disadvantaged.

At an informal workshop of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC),

held in Alleppey, Kerala, in 2011, Election Commissioners specifically devoted their

discussions to the game-changing impact of electronic voting machines. India’s neighbours

– Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – had all demonstrated their potential

and the Commissioners agreed that this was the way forward. Now manufactured in India

by two separate government-sponsored bodies, the machines are both affordable and

scalable, with a million of them being used in each general election.

SMART VILLAGES

India’s voter power, as indelible as the ink on fingers.

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At another of the SAARC workshops, the Indian Election Commission underlined how they

use local sources of electricity to power video cameras and to contact voters and parties

in order better to regulate the elections, thereby making the rural electorate familiar with the

uses, rather than abuses, of electrically powered devices as a means of ensuring the basic

right from which all other rights in their society flow.

Change ignitedSo why does rural India cast its votes so enthusiastically despite the sustained failure of

the Indian state to improve the living standards of its poorest citizens? Is it because the poor

are ignorant and don’t know better? Are they gullible and vulnerable to vote buying and

empty campaign promises? Or are they prey to bullying and violence? These are important

questions and recent ethnographic research carried out nationally provides some insights.

One important reason why the rural elec torate participates so enthusiastically in elections is

because they hope their numbers and their votes for specific candidates and political parties

will act as pressure for the delivery of these missing services. Sometimes this does bear

fruit: a long-promised bridge materialises or a village finally gets its own primary health

centre. But on the whole, such developments are often random and rely on serendipity rather

than a concerted design for rural India. There is not, for instance, a concerted programme

for smart villages to mirror the much-hyped smart city agenda. Democratically elected

Panchayats have no coordinated action plan for delivery of services at the village level: at

the most local level, there is not even administrative back-up for their budget allocation plans.

As a result, rural India has some of the worst infrastructure in the world, with access to basic

services like water, electricity and roads a luxury for most villagers. In a community in West

Bengal investigated in 2011, the electricity supply had reached fewer than half the homes,

there was no piped water, only two households had a refrigerator, people were still dying

of preventable diseases such as jaundice, and the roads both within the village and linking it

to the outside world were all kuchcha (not

macadamised). A combination of factors – no

industry and few job opportunities, obstacles

to paddy cultivation and bad connectivity

– meant that there were only three main

sources of income: sale of pilfered coal,

mining sand from the nearby river bed and

India is now a world leader in demonstrating how a

simple but smart machine canrevolutionise the running of

a political system


65

poppy cultivation, each of which was illegal. People said they did not want to break the law

but had no other options for survival.

It is for this reason that elections have emerged as a moment when hope for a better life

is reignited in the electorate, a moment when politicians have to account for their neglect

of their constituencies and beg a second chance. During long and exhausting election

campaigns in large and diverse constituencies – a parliamentary constituency in India

is almost 20 times the size of one in the UK – the laundered clothes of rich politicians

become sullied by journeys on dusty roads, their arrogant heads must bend to enter the

modest huts of the poor, and their hands must fold in a plea for votes. Election campaigns

therefore have a levelling effect, as the powerful are humbled and the ordinary voter

finds a voice.

DutyUnquestionably, research shows, most citizens in India are clear-eyed about the venality of

politicians, the importance of their own role in the working of the democratic system and the

effect their individual vote has in determining the composition of government. “The vote is

our weapon” is a statement often used to explain this sense of empowerment. The electorate

believes in the efficacy of multi-party democracy and regularly held elections because it is

felt that only through these institutions can governments be forced to respond to popular

pressure and be punished for bad performance. The fact that incumbent governments are

frequently thrown out, or indeed rewarded with re-election, is proof of this. “Without us, the

system is nothing,” is how ordinary voters emphasise their role. Thus Indian voters see

electoral participation as fundamental to their engagement with the state, and their presence

on the voting list a rare but valued official acknowledgement of their existence. People often

use the word “duty” while describing the importance of voting; a typical formu lation states:

“it is my right to vote and it is my duty to exercise this right. If I don’t discharge this duty, it is

meaningless to have this right”.

Another factor is the visceral experience of

actually voting. The culture of a polling station

fosters order – disciplined queues, respect

for the ordinary person of whatever social

background, efficiency of process and trust in

the system, all of which are rare commodities

Most citizens in India are clear-eyed about the venality ofpoliticians and the importance of their own role in the working of the democratic system

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in Indian public life. In addition, here, the only relevant identity of a person is his electoral

photo identity card, which carries nothing but the most basic information. As people arrive

to vote, no preference is made on the basis of wealth, status or any other social marker,

and officials treat everyone the same. In India, with its ubiquitous and daily practices of

discrimination on grounds of caste, colour, class and religion – and those who live in India’s

villages experience these acutely – this extraordinary glimpse of egalitarianism is valued.

Further, people have often pointed out that the knowledge that each vote is of equal value

to any other heightens its importance even more.

Significance in “un-smart” placesSo we can conclude that the rural voter in India’s democracy is smart and politically savvy,

even to the acceptance of new technology. It is clear that within 60 years voters have

embraced electoral democracy, and electronic voting machines have helped to make it a

meaningful participatory process through which people renew their own citizenship but also

hope to hold the political class to account. Where this faith has been repeatedly thwarted

by the non-performance of successive governments, Indian rural voters have displayed

sophistication despite the distinctly “un-smart” surroundings of a large proportion of their

villages. There is limited access to news, literacy, information – all of which severely hampers

people’s ability to make use of state schemes, opportunities, loans, programmes or other

avenues that could make their lives better. Despite this, Indian voters have managed to

maintain their enthusiasm for democracy and imbue it with significance. It is now time

to deliver smart villages to these smart voters.

Author

Dr Mukulika Banerjee is Associate Professor in Social Anthropology at the London School ofEconomics and Political Science (LSE) and Inaugural Director of the LSE’s South Asia Centre;she is the author of Why India Votes? (2014) and of a forthcoming monograph based on 15 yearsof research in a village in India. [email protected]


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If energy poverty and access is such a pressing social problem, why do we need to involve

governments in addressing it at all? In other words, why won’t the market devise solutions

and innovative business models for expanding access to modern energy services? Or, why

don’t major institutions like the United Nations or the World Bank tackle the pesky issue once

and for all as part of their donor agendas?

This essay demonstrates why. It argues that energy poverty arises from a market failure that

only governments and public institutions are well-suited to engage. It then presents evidence

that without strong public policy intervention geared towards expanding energy access,

particularly in rural communities, hundreds of millions of people will remain mired in energy

insecurity and human poverty for many decades to come.

Markets and interventionIt is useful briefly to delve into some basic theory about markets and government intervention.

One quite fundamental problem is that markets only work for certain types of goods. They

tend to be efficient at distributing private goods such as bicycles or hamburgers – where

property rights can be completely defined and protected, where owners can exclude others

from access, and where property rights can be transferred or sold – but less effective for

common-pool goods or public goods that need agreed-upon rules or sanctions. Unfettered

economic markets are almost completely ineffective at distributing public goods such as clean

air or improved energy security, for instance.

It is no surprise, then, that an extremely large

number of people around the world do not

receive modern energy services, especially

through mini-grids or devices beyond solar

home systems that lack business channels,

because of a market failure to deliver them –

Public policy targets for energy access

Benjamin K. Sovacool

Without strong public policyintervention, hundreds of millionsof people will remain mired in energy insecurity for manydecades to come

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a situation in which neither private actors nor major donors expand energy networks to

reach a socially desirable state. Instead, the very poor fall through the cracks and are too

politically distant and eco nomi cally costly to provide with energy services, even under many

international programmes. Rural communities in off-grid villages often fall into this category,

so that energy access becomes a higher development goal, not a lower one.

Energy security and reductions in energy poverty will happen only when more basic needs,

such as the repayment of debt, financing of education and satisfaction of community

responsibilities, are accomplished. In addition, many multilateral financial institutions such

as the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank must demonstrate positive cost-benefit

ratios for all of their projects, since they are indeed usually giving loans rather than grants,

and many energy access projects have timelines that are too risky for these development

partners. Making matters worse, rural communities are characterised by poverty and low

population densities; with fewer households demanding less energy per household, utilities

face much higher costs to supply each unit of electricity consumed. In contrast, in urban

slums, where electricity theft is common, utilities struggle with how to bill informal settlements

that often do not meet the legal requirements to become regular customers.

Disturbing trendsProjections from the International Energy Agency (IEA) subtly, but clearly, underscore that

due to many of these factors, a large proportion of the poor are unlikely to reach the goals

of the United Nations Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) initiative anytime soon. In projecting

the future in their 2012 World Energy Outlook, the IEA estimated that almost 1 billion people

will still be without electricity by 2030 and that 2.6 billion people will still be without clean

cooking facilities. That same year, the number of people without clean cooking technologies

in India will amount to twice the population of the USA. Overall, the IEA forecast that 39 per

cent of people in the Asia-Pacific region would lack access to modern cooking facilities.

Even the financing trends of the past few

years confirm a trend away from universal

access. The IEA projected that about US$ 76

billion would be required to achieve universal

access to clean cooking by 2030, an average

of US$ 3.8 billion a year, and that US$ 1 trillion

would be needed for universal access to

By 2030, almost 1 billion people will still be without electricity

and 2.6 billion people will still be without clean

cooking facilities

energy and electricity, an average of US$ 50 billion a year. As of 2013, however, only 3 per

cent of this necessary annual investment had been committed.

Positive benefitsWhen energy access programmes are designed and structured according to sound

principles, and when there is a productive use of energy, they can provide customers with a

positive cost-benefit curve; that is, the benefits of energy access programmes will well exceed

the programme’s or technology’s costs. In Nepal, evaluations of a rural energy programme

involving micro-hydro units have specifically documented as much as US$ 8 in benefits per

household for every US$ 1.40 in total expenditures; in Sri Lanka, roughly three times the

budget of one energy access programme was invested in the market, suggesting it catalysed

the involve ment of the private sector1. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the United Nations reports2

that every dollar invested in a Solar Sister entre preneur – a woman selling solar lanterns –

generates more than US$ 46 in economic benefits in the first year alone.

Solar Sister’s mission is to build an Africa-wide network of women solar entrepreneurs trainedto introduce small-scale energy technologies to off-grid communities.

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Courte

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r Sis

ter

The returns for better cooking facilities can be even more significant. In Liberia, the return

on investment for improved cook stoves is greater than 400 per cent while the return on

investment for biogas stoves is greater than 100 per cent, meaning these systems both pay

for themselves and produce net benefits3. In Kenya, rates of return for improved cook stoves

are 429 per cent4.

One scientific study simulated what it would cost to provide universal access to gaseous

fuels for cooking and electricity for lighting in India by 2030, and found that programme

benefits would far outweigh the expense. Improved living standards, greater livelihood

opportunities and climate change mitigation – just three benefits – more than justified the

cost of expanding energy access5.

Another study looked at the benefit-cost ratio from 2005 to 2015 of switching away from

fuelwood, dung and coal in 11 developing countries to cleaner forms such as improved

cook stoves6. Such efforts would cost only US$ 650 million to achieve, but would produce

US$ 105 billion in benefits each year. Of course, the dilemma with these returns is that they

do not necessarily go to the parties making the investment: governments or vendors pay but

it is households and communities that benefit through improved health or cleaner air2.

ConclusionsIn sum, the message from the market appears to be simple, yet blunt: the poorest households

in the world are unlikely to be served by the activities of the private sector, government

programmes or financial institutions as currently constituted. These are the energy-poor

who – even through the IEA programmes – will not gain access to modern energy by 2030

under a business-as-usual scenario.

The lesson, however, is equally simple: if the energy access needs of these poorest of

the poor are unlikely to be met, then actors need to implement policies and integrate

them with targets to make certain that they

are served. To ensure equal development

and access for all, there is a need for specific

interventions to reach the poorest at the

bottom of the ladder, those who are not

served by com mercial energy providers or

large-scale energy projects that demand


71

To ensure equal development and access for all, there is a

need for specific interventions to reach the poorest at the

bottom of the ladder

positive profit margins early in the process. A few innovative business models have emerged

in recent years to address this concern, including the Pro-Poor Public-Private-Partnership

being piloted in Indonesia, or one-stop-shop firms which sell both microcredit loans for

off-grid equipment and the technology itself. But these have so far been limited to a few

niche markets.

Ultimately, if access to electricity, modern cooking devices, warm homes, cooked food,

the internet, and other modern amenities is to be truly available to all and equitably

distributed, then public-policy targets become an elemental, formative part of meeting that

moral imperative.

References

1. Sovacool, B.K. 2012. Deploying off-grid technology to eradicate energy poverty, Science338(6103): 47–48. American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington,

DC, USA.

2. SE4ALL. 2014. Solar Sister. Sustainable Energy For All, United Nations, New York, NY, USA.

3. Sovacool, B.K., Kryman, M. and Smith, T.C. 2014. Energy, poverty, and

development: A global review, in Sovacool, B.K. (ed.) Energy, Poverty, and Development,Routledge Critical Concepts in Development Studies Series, pp. 1–126. Routledge,

London, UK.

4. Malla, M.B., Bruce, N., Bates, E. and Rehfuess, E. 2011. Applying global cost-benefit

analysis methods to indoor air pollution mitigation interventions in Nepal, Kenya and Sudan:

Insights and challenges, Energy Policy 39: 7518–7529. Elsevier, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

5. Reddy, B.S., Balachandra, P. and Nathan, H.S.K. 2009. Universalization of access to

modern energy services in Indian households: Economic and policy analysis, Energy Policy 37:

4645–4657. Elsevier, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

6. Hutton, G., Rehfuess, E. and Tediosi, F. 2007. Evaluation of the costs and benefits

of interventions to reduce indoor air pollution, Energy for Sustainable Development 11(4): 34–

43. Elsevier, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

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Further reading

Asian Development Bank. 2013. Asia’s energy challenge: Critical energy needs for the Asian

century, Asian Development Outlook 2013, pp. 53–118. Asian Development Bank, Manila,

Philippines.

Halff, A., Rozhon, J. and Sovacool, B.K. (eds) 2014. Energy Poverty: Global Challenges andLocal Solutions. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.

Sovacool, B.K. and Drupady, I.M. 2012. Energy Access, Poverty, and Development: TheGovernance of Small-Scale Renewable Energy in Developing Asia. Ashgate Studies in

Environmental Policy and Practice, New York, NY, USA.

UNDP. 2013. Achieving Sustainable Energy for All in the Asia-Pacific. United Nations

Development Programme-Asia Pacific Research Centre, Bangkok, Thailand.

UNESCAP. 2013. Partnerships for Universal Access to Modern Energy Services: A GlobalAssessment Report by United Nations Regional Commissions. United Nations Economic and

Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand.

Author

Benjamin K. Sovacool is Professor of Business and Social Sciences and Director of the Center for Energy Technologies, Department of Business and Technology, Aarhus University, andAssociate Professor of Law, Vermont Law School, Institute for Energy and the [email protected]


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It is hard to talk about development in off-grid villages without talking about energy. Health,

education, food security, productive enterprise and environmental well-being, as well as

participatory democracy, can all be achieved if good policies are in place, but they depend

not only on access to energy but on the provision of information.

Sustainable and clean energy is a big challenge for off-grid villages in developing countries

like Tanzania, aggravated by a lack of appropriate policies. Policy formulation needs to look

at how best to boost energy access while addressing the barriers that hinder it, most of which

relate to knowledge of local developers, financing for off-grid energy projects, the regulatory

framework, and knowledge and awareness of the respective communities.

National policiesOne of the key successes in supporting rural electrification, and specifically off-grid projects,

has been the formulation of a Rural Energy Agency (REA). Tanzania is a good example of

this process, with major support beginning in 2005 with the passing of the Rural Energy

Act. Today, a Rural Energy Board (REB) comprising government, the private sector,

consumer representatives and development partners, governs and oversees Tanzania’s

REA and the Rural Energy Fund (REF). The REF is capitalised through funds from specific

taxes on petroleum products and electricity, and by development partners including

the World Bank/International Development Agency (IDA), the Swedish International

Cooperation Agency (Sida), the Norwegian Agency for International Cooperation (Norad),

and the US govern ment, among others.

Despite the presence of such agencies, many

countries do not have specific renewable

energy policies that foster the development

of clean energy and directly support off-grid

energy development. As a result, many REA

Energy policies for off-grid villages in Tanzania

Andrew Mnzava

Many countries do not haverenewable energy policies thatfoster the development of clean energy and directly supportoff-grid energy development

bodies have found them selves mostly engaged in grid extension1, with very few supporting

off-grid projects. This may be due to a number of chal lenges ranging from financing to

regulatory issues. Key policies should be put in place to overcome such barriers.

The government of Tanzania has an ambitious programme to support off-grid projects in

development centres that will not be reached by the interconnected grid before 2020, if at

all. A development centre, according to the national electrification prospectus, “is typically

a settlement with a population of at least 1,500 inhabitants in 2012, with some existing

social or administrative infrastructure (school, dispensary, police station, etc.), good access

by roads and some business activities”. In total, 154 projects have been drafted, 18 with

power supplied by mini-hydro plants, 63 by rice-husk-fuelled gasifiers and 73 by hybrid

diesel-photovoltaic systems1.

When we look at the sustainability of off-grid projects in general a number of challenges

commonly arise, calling for specific responses.

Local developersLocal or national developers are off-grid energy developers who generate and supply power

to their surrounding communities. Several individuals or groups may have the potential

capital to become local developers but lack information about how to go about setting up

off-grid power generation. Even those who have begun a project face challenges arising

from a lack of skills in technical planning and implementation and overall project and

business management.

This calls for capacity building, awareness raising and specific training of local and nationaloff-grid developers on how to design, build and run a successful off-grid power business2.

FinancingDeveloping national energy policies for off-

grid villages involves both institutions and

communities, as was demonstrated by the

analysis of the Mini-Grid Policy Toolkit 3

developed by the Africa-EU Renewable

Energy Cooperation Programme (RECP).

Project financing is one of the biggest

75


Several individuals or groups have the potential capital to

become local developers but lackinformation about how to set up

off-grid power generation

challenges. Loans from financial institutions have not been successful because of their

high interest rates and the very long pay-back time of the developers’ projects. Governments

have tried to introduce subsidies and matching grants, as well as performance grants with

support from the World Bank and development partners, but the rate of uptake is still poor

and success stories are very few and far between. This relates to deficiencies in developers’

skills and knowledge, institutional and regulatory complications, and low community

awareness and acceptance.

Corporate finance can be raised to develop and demonstrate business models, and different

sources of equity and debt capital can be made available, but access remains challenging3.

Both the financial sector and the developers’ side may lack enough information on how

off-grid projects should be designed, implemented and managed, and how developers

qualify for funding.

This mini-hydro has been developed on one of the Rift Valley farms in southwest Tanzania tosupport local agriculture with the provision of clean and sustainable energy.

76

SMART VILLAGES

A. M

nzava

There is a need for bridging between dev -elopers and financiers about the availabilityand offer of loans or grants.

Institutions and the regulatory frameworkWhen it comes to environmental issues, the

National Environmental Management Council

(NEMC) of Tanzania provides environmental impact assessment certificates before any

project can be implemented. If a project involves rivers, such as a hydro project, then the

developer needs a permit from the relevant water basin authorities under the Ministry of

Water. These are some of the key institutions with regulations that need to be met for a project

to be a success – without mentioning the general ones which are also necessary such as

business registration, business licensing, tax certificates and so on.

In Tanzania there is one national utility company, TANESCO, which is the main off-taker of

generated power. Most developers prefer to sell their power to TANESCO for a guaranteed

one-time return on investment, though recently it has proved to be impossible because of

long delays in TANESCO’s payment to the developers.

Bureaucracy therefore remains a challenge for national off-grid energy developers,

particularly considering their lack of experience and skills in the industry. This is exacerbated

when there are no links or connections providing ease of access to information between one

institution and another, which means that it can take developers up to a year to negotiate all

the steps involved in gaining the necessary permits.

A national policy is needed to provide a one-stop centre of information for all applications tofacilitate investment in off-grid projects for sustainable development.

Communities-consumersThere have been extensive studies of project financing but very few in terms of consumer

financing. Consumer financing is another way of looking at the ability and capacity of

consumers and clusters of communities to pay for the power supplied. This has been a

challenge in a number of rural communities where off-grid projects have been implemented.

Several villagers have failed to connect power to their households as a result of lack of funds

to pay for the connection, as well as an inability to pay monthly bills6.


77

National policies need to addressthe issue of community and

consumer knowledge and ensurethe consumer has the capability

to take off-grid power

Government efforts to introduce subsidies and grants for each house connected mean that

the developer gets paid, but still the rate of uptake has been very slow. Awareness raising,

em powering communities and creating community-based models can all help to solve some

of the issues, and also lead to improved project safety.

GreenMax Capital advisors have shown the cost comparisons between electricity and

kerosene, a common energy fuel in rural areas (Table 1)6. Notably, unfavourable upfront and

annualised costs are a matter of concern for developers when looking for pay-back on their

investment, leading most to sell their power to large national utilities rather than finding ways

to provide for off-grid villages7.

In several countries, the community model has proved to be the best option for remote

areas. In these cases the owners and managers in a cooperative or community-based

organisation are also the consumers, and

therefore have a strong interest in the

quality of the service and a real presence in

managing it 3,7.

National policies need to address the issue of community and consumer knowledge and,

Table 1 Cost comparison of energy sources6

Electricity KeroseneUpfront costs (TZS) Cheapest Expensive Cheapest Expensive

Fixed costs 310,295 377,045 5,500 13,250

Recurring costs 79,411 79,411 14,840 14,840

TOTAL 389,706 456,456 20,340 28,090

Annualised costs (TZS) Cheapest Expensive Cheapest Expensive

Fixed costs 37,816 43,933 637 1,660

Recurring costs 79,411 79,411 14,840 14,840

TOTAL 117,227 123,404 15,477 16,500

US$ 1 = TZS 2,000

Clean and better energy wouldprovide villages with better health services day and night,better education and easy access to information

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SMART VILLAGES

through economic empowerment, ensure that the consumer has the capability to take powergenerated off-grid.

SummaryThere is a need to formulate national policies for off-grid renewable energy that address

all the key angles discussed in this essay. The policies should harmonise the various

areas discussed to achieve successful implementation of off-grid energy projects and

hence increase the development of off-grid villages. Clearly, clean and better energy

would provide villages with better health services day and night, better education and easy

access to information through radio, television and mobile phones, as well as ease of

starting and establishing small business enterprises for economic development, such

as food processing machines to increase food productivity and storage to improve

food security.

References

1. REA. 2014. National Electrification Programme Prospectus, United Republic of Tanzania.Rural Energy Agency, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. http://tinyurl.com/o3n59b3

2. Mnzava, A. 2015. Recommended Support to Tanzania Off Grid (Mini Grid) Rural ElectricityDevelopers: Challenges, Finding and Recommendations. Presentation to Climate Parliament,

Tanzania. http://www.slideshare.net/mnzavaandrew/off-grid-challenges

3. Africa-EU Renewable Energy Cooperation Programme. 2014. Mini-Grid Policy Toolkit:Policy and Business Framework for Successful Mini-grid Roll-outs.http://ren21.net/Portals/0/documents/Resources/MGT/MinigridPolicyToolkit_Sep2014_EN.pdf

(accessed 9 January 2015).

4. EWURA. 2014. The Electricity Act (Cap 131): The Electricity (development of small power projects) Rules, 2014. Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority, Dar es Salaam,

Tanzania. http://tinyurl.com/nszubn9

5. MEM. 2013. Scaling up Renewable Energy Programme (SREP): Investment Plan forTanzania. Ministry of Energy and Minerals, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

http://tinyurl.com/kfmwtg8


79

6. REA. 2013. Tanzania Market Intelligence: Final Report. GreenMax Capital Advisors/Rural

Energy Agency, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

https://www.lightingafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/TMI_May_Final_Approved.pdf

7. World Future Council (WFC)/Heinrich Böll Stiftung (HBS)/Friends of the Earth EWNI.

2013. Powering Africa through Feed-in Tariffs.https://www.boell.de/sites/default/files/2013-03-powering-africa_through-feed-in-tariffs.pdf

(accessed 9 January 2015).

Author

Andrew Mnzava is a Senior Research Officer with the Commission for Science and Technology(COSTECH) in Tanzania and has been extensively involved in rural electrification [email protected] / [email protected]

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SMART VILLAGES

81

Providing the world’s poor with modern energy services represents an investment

challenge. The United Nations Sustainable Energy For All (SE4All) initiative estimates

that energy access in developing countries requires investments of US$ 45 billion

annually by 2030 to step up to this challenge1. This means that the US$ 9 billion per year

currently invested in energy access has to be quintupled – not an easy task considering the

scarce budgets of the public sector, especially in developing countries.

In my eyes, providing the 1.3 billion people without access to electricity, and the 2.7 billion

people dependent on traditional biomass for cooking2, with modern energy services will not

be achieved without the private sector financing a significant share of these investments.

Hence, the question of whether the private sector will finance off-grid rural energy is decisive.

The good news is that the private sector – in theory – has the economic presence to provide

financing at the required scale, with global capital markets amounting to more than

US$ 200 trillion3. However, private-sector investors and financiers, be it debt providers or

equity sponsors, require certain conditions to make them feel confident of investing at a

significant scale. Given the high number of people lacking access to modern energy

services, such conditions barely exist in the off-grid energy sector.

What are these conditions? Of course there is a range of different types of investors in

the private sector, but it is safe to say that most investors primarily consider three main

parameters: return, risk and scale.

Return on investmentUnlike most donors or the public sector, private

investors demand a return on their invest -

ments above a certain threshold, also called

the hurdle rate. In other words, the revenues

from a private-sector-financed electrification

Will private-sector finance support off-grid energy?

Tobias S. Schmidt

$$

Private-sector investors andfinanciers require certain

conditions to make them feelconfident of investing at a

significant scale

project need not only to cover the depreciation on the equipment, the operational expenditure

such as wages, debt service and interest expenses to a bank, for example, but also to provide

an annual income for the equity sponsor above a certain hurdle rate. To increase revenues

and help surpass the hurdle rate, several sources of value might be combined in a business

model – such as national government subsidies or revenues from global carbon markets.

Recent research has shown, however, that the most important source of income will be the

payments made by the energy consumers themselves – the villagers4.

In order to guarantee sustained income over the entire lifetime of the investment, business

models for smart villages need to ensure a positive income dynamic in the village5: the use

of modern energy services should lead to an increase in income for the villagers. This helps

to ensure that they can afford the consumption of these modern forms of energy in the long

run and thereby provide sufficient long-term return for the private investor. But how high is

the hurdle rate? How much return is sufficient? This depends strongly on the second relevant

factor: risk.

Risk of investmentThe minimum return an investor demands depends on the risks present in a project. Each

additional risk adds to the hurdle rate. Certain risks can even act as a “show-stopper”, making

projects entirely unattractive for private-sector investment. Private investors – particularly

those willing to invest in long-term infrastructure such as that required for electrification – are

typically risk-averse. At the same time, many electrification projects are plagued by high risks

stemming from different stakeholders at various governance levels (Table 1).

Some risks can be addressed through the business model of the electrification entrepreneur,

but others are beyond the entrepreneur’s control and need to be addressed by the public

sector. An example of such a risk for an investor is when a village that has been electrified

by a private-sector investor becomes incorporated into the main electricity grid: the main

grid’s cheaper and often heavily sub sidised

electricity tariffs undermine the private-sector

investor’s business model4.

Scale of investmentPrivate investors typically dislike small project

scales. This is due to the considerable effort

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SMART VILLAGES

Some risks can be addressedthrough the business model of theelectrification entrepreneur, butothers need to be addressed by the public sector

and high costs in evaluating potential sources of return and risk for each project. Different

project types often also require different legal arrangements, leading to additional costs.

These evaluation and structuring costs typically occur long before an investment can

generate returns and typically do not increase strongly with project size, which makes larger

investment more attractive.

At the same time, almost all projects provid ing modern energy services to villages require

relatively small-scale investment7. For household-scale services such as solar lanterns,

efficient cook stoves or solar home systems, micro-finance vehicles can be appropriate.

However, solutions at the village level, such as electricity mini-grids, require scales of

investment which are on the one hand too large for micro-finance investors but on the other

too small for typical (energy) infra structure investors.

Table 1 Common risks in electrification projects, stakeholders driving these risksand their governance level4,6

RiskRegulatory riskpermits, market access, power market regulation

Grid extension riskarrival of main grid

Technology riskquality of equipment and project planning

Operations riskoperating and maintaining equipment

Financing risk

Customer payment risk

Public acceptance risk

StakeholderPublic sector

Electricity utility/grid operator/grid regulator

Technology supplier/engineering contractor

Project developer

Financial sector

Villagers

General public

Governance levelNational/(local)

National/sub-national

International/national/(local)

Local

National/international

Local

National/local


83

For village-level solutions, a future option is to bundle several independently operated mini-

grids in various villages under one legal investment entity. While this increases the planning,

training and operational efforts, it not only allows reaching investment scales which are

more interesting for infrastructure investors, but carries a second potential advantage: due

to the pooling of several villages, the diversification of risks could lead to a portfolio effect,

reducing the minimum rate of return required by the investors.

Policy implicationsPolicy makers from the global to the local governance level who aim to increase the

contribution of the private sector to off-grid rural energy finance can help to create more

favourable conditions for private-sector finance. Understanding the three key criteria of private

investors is a good starting point.

Box 1 Policy options

Related to returnn In order to provide adequate return for investors, the public sector could provide co-

funding through private-public partnerships8. But subsidies also play an important role4.

Policy makers at the national level can remove regulations that cap energy revenues at

very low rates.

n Many countries do not allow electrification projects to collect electricity tariffs higher than

the often highly subsidised grid rate, despite the fact that villagers have a much greater

willingness and capacity to pay4.

n At the international level, policy makers designing carbon markets with offset mechanisms,

or supporting nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs), can provide differentiated

support for projects with a high development impact9. As energy access projects typically

have a high development impact they would profit from increased carbon revenues.

Related to riskn Addressing investment risks is often called de-risking10. To de-risk an investment, risks can

be mitigated by addressing their root causes, as in policy reform; risks can be transferred

to third parties through guarantees or insurance vehicles; or risks can be compensated by

increasing the expected return. continued on page 85

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SMART VILLAGES

RecommendationPolicy makers in donor countries but also in developing countries should support future

research on the topics listed in Box 1 with respect to the development and expansion of

smart villages in developing countries.

Key questions concern the quantification of risks, the size of the portfolio effects, the prospect

of combinations of grid extension and off-grid electrification, and the feasibility of policy reform

– especially given a new international momentum due to the SE4All initiative and the post-

Kyoto climate policy.


85

n Research on grid-connected renewable energy projects6 has shown that mitigating risks is

the most cost-effective approach, followed by risk transfer.

n Compensating risks is typically inefficient. In the case of smart villages, this implies a

smart-village strategy that includes policy reform to reduce or completely eradicate policy-

induced risks. Where such reform is not enough, or is prevented by political realities, risk

transfer instruments should be provided by national governments through their national

development banks, or international institutions such as regional development banks or

the World Bank.

n To date, risk transfer instruments specific to the smart village do not exist and should

be developed.

Related to scalen A smart-village policy strategy with clear goals is important to reach scale. While concepts

will have to be tailored to individual villages, from an investor perspective it is important

that too many competing concepts are avoided, allowing for relatively standardised

business models.

n The governance level of such a strategy depends on the country size: in larger countries,

such as India, a strategy on the sub-national level (federal states) could be most effective;

in smaller countries, a national or even regional strategy would make sense in order to

reach investment scale.

Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank Steven Comello, Abhishek Malhotra, Anshuman Sahoo, Mayukh

Samantha, Gireesh Shrimali and Oliver Waissbein. The discussions with them served as helpful input.

References

1. Banerjee, S.G., Bhatia, M., Azuela, G.E., Jaques, I., Sarkar, A., Portale, E., Bushueva, I.,

Angelou, N. and Inon, J.G. 2013. Global Tracking Framework: Sustainable Energy for All. The

World Bank, Washington, DC, USA.


3. McKinsey Global Institute. 2011. Mapping Global Capital Markets 2011. McKinsey Global

Institute, Paris, France.

4. Schmidt, T.S., Blum, N.U. and Sryantoro, W.R. 2013. Attracting private investments

into rural electrification: A case study on renewable energy based village grids in

Indonesia, Energy for Sustainable Development 17: 581–595. Elsevier, Amsterdam,

Netherlands.

5. Schnitzer, D., Shinde, L.D., Carvallo, J.P., Deshmukh, R., Apt, J. and Kammen, D.M.

2014. Microgrids for Rural Electrification: A Critical Review of Best Practices Based on SevenCase Studies. United Nations Foundation, Washington, DC, USA.

6. Waissbein, O., Glemarec, Y., Bayraktar, H. and Schmidt, T.S. 2013. Derisking RenewableEnergy Investment: A Framework to Support Policymakers in Selecting Public Instruments toPromote Renewable Energy Investment in Developing Countries. United Nations Development

Programme (UNDP), New York, NY, USA.

7. ESMAP. 2007. Technical and Economic Assessment of Off-Grid, Mini-Grid and GridElectrification Technologies. Energy Sector Management Assistance Program, The World Bank,


8. Bhattacharyya, S.C. 2013. Financing energy access and off-grid electrification: A review of

status, options and challenges, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 20: 462–472.

Elsevier, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

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SMART VILLAGES

9. Bakker, S., Haug, C., Van Asselt, H., Gupta, J. and Saïdi, R. 2011. The future of the

CDM: Same same, but differentiated? Climate Policy 11(1): 752–767. Taylor & Francis,

Abingdon, UK.

10. Schmidt, T.S. 2014. Low-carbon investment risks and de-risking, Nature Climate Change 4:

237–239. Macmillan, London, UK.

Author

Professor Dr Tobias Schmidt is an Assistant Professor of Energy Politics at the Swiss FederalInstitute of Technology (ETH Zürich), Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences,Energy Politics Group. [email protected]


87

There is a kerosene lamp known in the Luganda language as tadooba. It burns like a

candle and it gives off thick dark smoke that slowly causes a black coating on the roof

of the house, the walls, the furniture and other household items. It is the commonest

type of lamp used in poor homesteads in Uganda. Meanwhile, our forests are diminishing

because about 95 per cent of the country’s households depend on firewood and charcoal

for cooking. The use of lamps such as tadooba for lighting and firewood for cooking leads

to household air pollution dangerous to human health. Nearly 20,000 young children die of

indoor air pollution-related pneumonia annually in Uganda, while globally an estimated

3.5 million deaths every year are associated with the problem – mainly women and children

in low-income countries1.

Currently, according to the government’s Rural Electrification Strategy and Plan 2013–

2022, less than 5 per cent of Uganda’s rural population has access to hydroelectricity.

This low level of electrification is an impediment to achieving the desired transformation,

which includes the provision of cleaner and more efficient technologies for cooking and

lighting in all households2.

During the civil war in our country (1980–1986) my wife, Mary, and I lived in Nairobi, Kenya,

where we used electricity for lighting and other household purposes. As we prepared to

return to Uganda when the war came to a close, we sold off the television, the cooker,

the refrigerator and all our other electrical appliances, since we would not be able to use

them in southern Uganda where we meant

to set up a small farm and where we had

no electricity.

Both Mary and I had grown up in homes

without electricity and we knew what to

expect, but not our children. When they saw

How electricity changed our lives Michael J. Ssali

Uganda’s forests are diminishingbecause about 95 per cent of the country’s households depend on firewood and charcoal for cooking

88

89

How electricity changed our lives

their mother lighting the tadooba, one of them said, “Mama is lighting a small stove”. They

had to see for the first time a charcoal flat iron used for pressing our clothes. They were

alarmed to watch her laying the firewood and lighting the fire in the small grass-thatched

shade that passed as our kitchen, fearing that it could catch fire and that she could even

get burnt herself. It took all of us quite some time to get used to life without electricity.

In 2004, thanks to DANIDA, a Danish donor agency, and the government of Uganda,

hydroelectricity was to be extended to neighbouring Rakai district, and our Member of

Parliament, Gerald Ssendaula, announced that the transmission lines were to pass through

our home area and that several villages including ours – Ngereko in Kisekka sub-county –

were to benefit. The good news arrived when we were still burdened with our children’s

college tuition fees and the construction of our present house.

Building a houseIn rural Uganda people may build their houses according to the materials available to them

and according to their financial ability. Even simple houses of mud and wattle can be

connected to electricity. To build a strong modern house, however, one must have an

architect’s plan approved by the government. The building materials, including bricks, timber,

sand, cement and other items, all have to be purchased and the builder has to be paid.

Some people spend nearly all their lives saving money and buying building materials for

their houses. Mary and I were in the process of building such a house and at the same time

trying hard to raise university fees for our daughter and son when it was announced that

hydroelectricity was to be extended to our home area. So it was not until 2010 that we were

able to have our house connected to electricity.

There are costs involved: a qualified electrician must be hired to carry out the house wiring;

households must apply to the electricity distribution companies to be connected; and then

they must pay for the electricity they use3. Currently, one has to part with 98,000 shillings

(US$ 40) or 326,000 shillings (US$ 120) for a

“no-pole” or a “one-pole” service, respectively.

In a country such as Uganda, where close

to 70 per cent of the population lives on less

than US$ 2 a day and the average annual

per-person income is US$ 6,244, these are

very high costs, and the great majority of

Demand for electricity in rural areas has increased with themushrooming of vocational

schools that turn out youths eagerto start their own businesses

households are still unconnected. Recently, the government came up with a plan to make

free connections to houses located close to electric power lines (no-pole connections), which

may see several thousands of homes connected.

Changed livesElectricity dramatically changes lives2. Soon after getting connected we purchased a digital

satellite television set, an electric flat iron and a few other household electrical appliances,

and it is possible for us nowadays to use the computer and to access the internet, right in

our home. However, power cuts are nearly a daily fact of life and a nuisance to live with.

Sometimes as we watch an interesting television programme the power goes off with no

warning from the providers5. UMEME, the main distribution company in Uganda, explains

that this is inevitable due to the ongoing construction of extension lines.

Before new extension lines are constructed, the distribution companies and government

representatives hold meetings with com munity members to agree on the terms of

compensation for people who may have their crops trashed or their houses pulled down in

90

SMART VILLAGES

Clean water – one of the myriad benefits of electrification.

M.J

. Ssali

the process of setting up the power lines. The people are warned that electricity can be very

dangerous if it is not well installed wherever it has to be connected, and they are also warned

not to engage in power theft.

Since it is a long-term government strategy to extend household electricity access to all

corners of the country, many youths have acquired training in electrical installation so as

to be hired to install power in homes that have to be connected. Some of them, however, are

often engaged by dishonest people to make illegal connections or to wire their houses in

such a way that some of the power used is not metered. In some cases, people with no

training at all in electrical installation have made connections that time and time again have

caused house fires and deaths. Distribution companies make routine checks and culprits are

often disconnected and made to pay heavy fines.

New businesses The demand for electricity in rural areas has increased in the past two or so decades

with the mushrooming of vocational schools that turn out youths eager to start their own

businesses as welders, tailors, carpenters and motor vehicle mechanics among other

crafts, all of which require electricity. In our own home area, youths have begun to trade

as steel welders, making doors, windows and other things that they easily sell within our

community. “With unnatural precision and surprising grace, a mechanical claw dances

around a half-meter piece of metal, neatly pouring lubricant down one side and welding it

shut in a final flurry of sparks. An auto part falls into a waiting bin”6. Others have set up hair

and beauty salons while bar owners and shop keepers have acquired refrigerators and

sell cold drinks. Rural health centres can now use such equipment as X-rays, scanner

machines and other electrical diagnostic appliances. The extension of hydroelectric power

to rural trading centres and villages has facilitated the provision of clean piped water and

increased the use of water closet (WC) lavatories.

Given the high cost of extending power lines

to far-off rural areas, the government is en -

couraging new energy options such as solar

panels for lighting, charging phones and pow -

er ing household amenities like tele visions.

Local banks and microfinance institutions are

required to prioritise granting loans to people

Local banks and microfinanceinstitutions are required by the

government to prioritise grantingloans to people intending to install

solar power in their homes


91

intending to install solar power in their homes. Generators are another option, but they burn

expensive fuel – often involving long treks to obtain it – and they pollute the environment with

smoke and noise. But they are often the machines used to power the music systems needed

at rural discotheques and “trans-night” parties, as well as being depended upon to pump

water or provide electricity to hospitals, schools and some towns. Given the recurrent power

cuts in communities connected to the grid, a standby generator comes in handy whenever

the power goes off.

To a large extent, rural electrification has con tributed to a reduction in the migration of

youth from rural to urban areas, since some of the ameni ties of large African towns – such

as watch ing football on TV, disco theques, and oppor tunities for self-employment – are

brought closer to home by the availability of electricity. Some youths have opened up internet

cafés, phone repair workshops, tailoring shops complete with electric sewing machines,

and other such small-scale enterprises in their own villages.

Nearly every home these days owns a mobile phone which must be charged. Yet only a very

small percentage of homes have electricity. Some people connected to the grid or to solar

power have set up phone-charging centres as a form of income generation. The mobile

phone is used for money transfers, and it is a strong driver of agriculture in rural areas. With

the use of the mobile phone the rich men in the towns can pay their farm employees without

having to travel, and they can also give day-to-day instructions to their workers.

Jobs for a growing population Electricity is a useful form of energy in agriculture since it can be converted into light and

used to power pumps that push water to farms7. It is also used for refrigeration and for

providing heat8 – in the past, if a farmer failed to sell some of the day’s milk he had to use

firewood or charcoal to boil it to preserve it, whereas nowadays many farmers safeguard

the milk by keeping it in refrigerators. Here and there, farmers’ groups have set up coffee

hullers and maize mills that add value to their

produce. A farmer in our village uses elec -

tricity to pump underground water for his

poultry farm and he also uses it to hatch eggs

and keep the chicks warm. His poultry farm

employs some six youths, which gives cre -

dence to an obser vation made by Engineer

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SMART VILLAGES

Some risks can be addressedthrough the business model of the electrification entrepreneur, but others need to be addressed by the public sector

Peter Kiwanuka Ssebalamu, Head of the

Mechanical Engineering Department at

Mutesa One Royal University, that “provision

of electricity to the remote rural areas will keep

the youths there instead of going to Kampala

and other towns seeking employment”.

The International Energy Agency reports that globally, 1.3 billion people lack access to

electricity and 2.7 billion lack clean cooking facilities9. Even with investments of $1 billion

per year between 2010 and 2030 for on-grid electricity connections, a billion people would

still be without electricity. And with current population growth, billions of people will continue

to live without cooking facilities. There is a huge gap in power supply in most developing

countries, especially in East Africa, illustrating the need to review their energy policies in

order to bridge this gap. Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa with unchecked population growth

as well as widely differing GDP per person4 will continue to present challenges to completing

rural electrification.

References

1. UBOS. 2012. Statistical Abstract. Uganda Bureau of Statistics, Kampala, Uganda.

http://www.ubos.org/onlinefiles/uploads/ubos/pdf%20documents/2012StatisticalAbstract.pdf

2. Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development. 2012. The Government of Uganda RuralElectrification Strategy and Plan 2013–2022. Kampala, Uganda. http://tinyurl.com/kkc7lr3

3. Daily Monitor. 2014. 30,000 to get free power connections, 17 December. p. 3.

http://tinyurl.com/l4z75e9

4. Global Property Guide. www.globalpropertyguide.com/Africa/Uganda/gdp-per-capita

5. New African. 2014. Africa’s lightbulb moment, December Issue 544. pp. 86–87.

http://newafricanmagazine.com/africas-lightbulb-moment/

6. Norbrook, N. 2014. Join the adding value chain, The Africa Report, December issue

p. 54.

Countries with uncheckedpopulation growth and widelydiffering GDP per person will

continue to present challenges tocompleting rural electrification


93

7. Ngugi, D.N., Karau, P.K. and Nguyo, W. 1978. In: East African Agriculture, p. 312.

Macmillan Education Ltd, London, UK.

8. Kabeera, E. 2014. The Independent, December Issue 346 (05.11.2014) p. 24.


Author

Michael J. Ssali is the Bureau Chief of the Daily Monitor, a privately owned newspaper in the Southern Uganda region. While writing a weekly column – Farmers Diary – in the Daily Monitor,he is also a practising farmer; and is a fellow of b4fa – Biosciences for Farming in Africa(www.b4fa.org). [email protected]

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Although Latin America has experienced a successful decade of reduction in poverty

and inequality, it continues to be the most unequal region in the world1. The persistence

of high levels of social injustice is not accidental: its profound structural causes are

rooted in unfair political, economic and social institutional frameworks, which have been

shaped throughout history by asymmetric power relations2.

Among social institutions, educational systems play a critical role in reproducing social

inequalities in the modern world. Latin America is no exception. Privatisation, deregulation

and the expansion of for-profit fee-charging schools have increasingly eroded and weakened

the region’s public systems, stratifying access and jeopardising the right to education for

all. As a result, and despite improvements, educational systems are still failing society,

constituting a persistent source of social exclusion.

If these inequalities are not tackled, the impact of existing educational inequalities over social

asymmetries will intensify as human civilisation worldwide moves towards knowledge-based

societies. As knowledge increasingly defines power in the modern world, inequality in access

to knowledge and information will increasingly consolidate and magnify power asymmetries

within and between countries.

Latin America faces several urgent challenges3,4. Firstly, access restrictions are still relevant,

especially at pre-school, secondary and tertiary levels, and in geographically remote areas.

Secondly, the region experiences severe in -

equality problems. Not only do countries ex hibit

low levels of learning outcomes, they are un -

equally distributed among the population. Public

funding is insufficient, and teacher quality is

low and inadequate, not only in relation to

the capacity to deliver the official national

Energy and ICT for educationalinclusion in Latin America

Javier González Díaz

Children and youth living inremote rural locations are literally

disconnected from the world,excluded from the opportunities

provided by global learning

95

curriculum, but also in terms of the ability to teach and transfer basic technological skills,

which are fundamental to modern labour markets. Additionally, educational infrastructure is

still precarious across the region; this is especially acute in rural areas, where a large

proportion of students lack access to electricity, internet and computers at their schools and

homes. These rural communities are usually among the most vulnerable segments of society

and are those most likely to be forgotten and left behind.

Children and youth in remote rural locations are literally disconnected from the world,

excluded from the opportunities provided by global learning communities. The numbers are

unambiguous: around 34 million people in Latin America have no access to modern electricity

services5. Nevertheless, the severity of the problem varies across the region6. In 2010,

countries including Uruguay and Costa Rica had electricity coverage rates beyond 99 per

cent, while others such as Bolivia, Nicaragua and Haiti exhibited rates of 77, 65 and 28 per

Access to modern information and communication technologies can transform the learningexperience for pupils and teachers alike.

96

SMART VILLAGES

Sjo

rs737/D

ream

stim

e.c

om

cent, respectively. Moreover, electricity access

varies within countries. In Bolivia, for example,

90 per cent of the urban population has access

to electricity services, while only 53 per cent

has access in rural areas.

This phenomenon strongly affects edu cational

systems. In fact, Duarte, Gargiulo and Moreno3, using a representative sample of schools

from 16 Latin American countries, estimate that around 11 per cent of primary schools in

the region have no access to electricity. This percentage rises to 34, 46 and 57 per cent

in the case of Panama, Peru and Nicaragua. Moreover, when these figures are analysed

taking into consideration the geographical location of schools, the panorama is even more

alarming. For example, in these three countries, 46, 75 and 68 per cent of public rural

schools, respectively, do not have access to electricity to develop their normal educational

activities. Finally, schools’ access to electricity varies enormously depending on the socio-

economic background of the students attending each school. While almost all schools

serving students from the highest income quintile have access to electricity, approximately

only half of those serving the lowest income quintile are connected to the grid. This unequal

geographic and socio-economic pattern of electrification strongly affects the educational

opportunities of Latin American children and their chance of achieving a better future.

Can access to energy and ICT make a difference?Permanent access to electric power in homes and schools opens a range of economic and

social development alternatives for geographically isolated communities. Amongst other

options, it allows access to information and communication technology (ICT), which may be

successfully used to enhance educational opportunities. Access by itself, however, does

not automatically translate into an adequate use and incorporation of ICT into pedagogical

practices, and it does not necessarily guarantee a positive impact on learning7. Nevertheless,

when ICT is adequately adapted, used and effectively incorporated into the learning process

by trained teachers and motivated students, it can strongly and positively enhance education

in several ways.

The introduction of new innovative technologies facilitates and improves the manner in

which learning occurs within the classroom. According to UNESCO, “technology is not

neutral; the penetration of ICT in schools can eventually transform pedagogy and the creation

Permanent access to electric power in homes and schools

opens a range of economic andsocial development alternatives

for isolated communities

Energy and ICT for educational inclusion in Latin America

97

of knowledge”8. It allows students as well as

teach ers to discover new ideas and com pile

educational material to be discussed in class,

transforming education into an inter active, bi-

directional and horizontal peda gogical process.

The possibility of using innovative applications

helps to overcome spatial and geographical

barriers. Virtual learning platforms allow students to access educational content, as well as

tackle homework and other assignments from their homes4,9. This is especially important

for dis persed and isolated communities facing con ditions that often limit their capacity to

attend school regularly.

Information and communication technology provides teachers with a vast amount of valuable

online material to prepare lessons, improving their quality and reducing the time they have

to devote to organising and preparing each module. Similarly, the availability of electricity

and ICT helps to motivate teachers, and provides them with better and continuous training

opportunities: they can access online training courses and share best pedagogic practices,

all of which may have a great impact on their teaching skills8,10. Moreover, a higher level of

virtual connectivity opens a way for further cooperation within and between educational

communities. Through this channel, ICT enables the creation of effective educational networks

between geographically isolated schools, allowing them to jointly access, develop and share

learning materials pertinent to those specific communities.

More specifically – and most importantly – there is robust evidence of the positive impact of

computers on learning when these are specifically adapted and used to teach mathematics,

science and literacy11. Experimental studies that make it possible to establish causality among

variables also confirm these findings12.

In sum, as worldwide experiences show, electricity enables the use of new technologies for

educational purposes, constructing a virtual bridge between isolated rural communities and

global educational networks.

Real life stories: aiming for the starsThe penetration of ICT in education and its use in vulnerable and isolated communities is

already a reality: lives are being changed in poor, rural and remote areas.

The availability of electricity and ICT helps to motivateteachers, and provides them with better and continuoustraining opportunities

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Puentes Educativos, one of several innovative projects, has been implemented along these

lines since 2010 in more than 400 schools in Chile. Aiming to improve educational quality by

introducing the effective use of the new technologies, it provides students with smart phones

and free internet access, and teachers with training and specially designed online material,

including hundreds of videos adjusted to the local curriculum that they can download and

use in their classes.

Besides increasing motivation among students, Puentes Educativos has had a significant

effect on learning outcomes. In fact, a recent impact evaluation of the project shows that

students from sixth grade increase their test scores in science and English by 10 per cent

or more. But the project is not only about test performance: it also allows students to access

and share information, and to experience new and far-away realities that they could never

encounter in their own localities. No doubt this was the experience of students from San

Clemente in the centre-south region of Chile, when their teacher managed to organise a

video conference with a scientist working at ALMA, the largest astronomical project in

the world, located at an altitude of 5,000 metres in northern Chile. Thanks to the Puentes

Educativos project, those children were able to interact with scientists, relate their curriculum

to real-life facts and, most importantly, were able to learn – from thousands of kilometres

away – how it feels to aim for the stars.

References

1. ECLAC. 2014. Social Panorama of Latin America. United Nations Economic Commission for

Latin America and the Caribbean, Santiago, Chile.

2. Acemoglu, D. and Robinson, J. 2013. Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity,and Poverty. Crown Business, New York, NY, USA.

3. Duarte, J., Gargiulo, C. and Moreno, M. 2011. Infraestructura Escolar y Aprendizajes en laEducación Básica Latinoamericana: Un Análisis a Partir del SERCE. Banco Interamericano de

Desarrollo, Washington, DC, USA.

4. UNESCO. 2012. Activando el Aprendizaje Móvil: Iniciativas Ilustrativas e ImplicacionesPolíticas en América Latina. Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Educación, la Ciencia

y la Cultura, París, Francia.

Energy and ICT for educational inclusion in Latin America

99

5. IDB. 2015. Energy in Latin America and the Caribbean. Inter-American Development Bank,


http://www.iadb.org/en/topics/energy/energy-in-latin-america-and-the-caribbean.1272.html

(accessed 25 March 2015).

6. OLADE. 2012. Cobertura Eléctrica en América Latina y el Caribe. Organización

Latinoamericana de Energía, Quito, Ecuador.

7. Kozma, R. 2011. The technological, economic, and social contexts for educational ICT

policies, in: UNESCO. 2011. Transforming Education: The Power of ICT Policies. United Nations

Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Paris, France.

8. UNESCO. 2011. Transforming Education: The Power of ICT Policies. United Nations

Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Paris, France.

9. UNESCO. 2012. Aprendizaje Móvil Para Docentes: Análisis del Potencial de las TecnologíasMóviles para Apoyar a los Docentes y Mejorar sus Prácticas. Organización de las Naciones

Unidas para la Educación, la Ciencia y la Cultura, París, Francia.

10. Kozma, R., McGhee, R., Quellmalz, E. and Zalles, D. 2004. Closing the digital divide:

Evaluation of the World Links program, International Journal of Educational Development 24(4):

361–381. Elsevier, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

11. Harrison, C., Comber, C., Fisher, T., Haw, K., Lewin, C., Lunzer, E., McFarlane, A.,

Mavers, D., Scrimshaw, P., Somekh, B. and Watling, R. 2003. ImpaCT2: The Impact ofInformation Communication Technologies on Pupil Learning and Attainment. British Educational

Communications and Technology Agency, Coventry, UK.

12. Linden, L., Banerjee, A. and Duflo, E. 2003. Computer-Assisted Learning: Evidence from aRandomized Experiment. Poverty Action Lab, Cambridge, MA, USA.

Author

Javier González Díaz is Affiliated Lecturer at the Centre of Development Studies, University of

Cambridge. [email protected]

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Women constitute 51 per cent of Sierra Leone’s population of 6 million. They are

responsible for nearly all household duties, from food production and processing

to child bearing and family upbringing. Often, however, women are viewed not as

individuals but as part of a male-headed household with some unique needs of their own

related to their perceived roles. This approach generally takes little account of their real needs,

let alone their potential.

Around 4 million of Sierra Leone’s 6 million people live in rural areas with no access to

electricity. People depend on firewood and charcoal for lighting, cooking and heating, which

is of poor quality, and batteries for electrical appliances, which are costly. The extension of

the electricity grid will take some time to reach these communities, some of which are so

dispersed and demand so little power that even mini-grids are not an economic solution.

The lack of electricity means that they are extremely isolated and have little opportunity for

economic improvement.

Smart villages in Sierra Leone: how did they start?In Sierra Leone, the concept of smart villages began with the idea of distributing solar home

systems in rural areas by removing financial and technical barriers. Twelve women, drawn

from 12 villages in the northern region of Sierra Leone where rural electricity was a huge

challenge, were trained at Barefoot College, Telonia, India1. The women were illiterate or

semi-literate, and on completion of their train -

ing at Barefoot College the issue arose of

how to sustain and transfer the knowledge

they had gained.

The Barefoot Solar Training Centre was built

in 2009 with funds from the government of

The model promotes decentralisedsmall business and financingsystems that enable the rural

poor to learn how to pay for theirown solar panels

Improving life for women and girls in Sierra Leone

Christiana A. Thorpe

101

Sierra Leone, and implemented by the National Commission for Social Action (NaCSA).

The Barefoot Women Solar Engineers Association of Sierra Leone2 (BWSEASL) was

formed with the sole aim of getting solar technology to all the country’s remote and

inaccessible villages. The approach was based on the belief that those who benefit from

solar electricity are its most important promoters. The model therefore encourages

decentralised small business and financing systems that enable the rural poor, especially

women, to learn how to pay for their own solar panels. This gives them responsibility

Box 1 Has this intervention changed lives?

The solar network is helping to change the lives of women and girls in the following ways:n Attitudes: confidence building and ownership of the project.

n Health: home kerosene use, which created respiratory and eye problems, especially for

women and girls involved in household chores, has been reduced. Health clinics have also

received solar lighting, improving health care; women with babies are particular beneficiaries

as they are regular visitors to these clinics.

n Education: girls can now study at night in a safe environment and some schools have received

solar electrification facilities.

n Environment: over the lifetime of each 50-watt panel that replaces kerosene lighting,

between 3 and 6 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions will be avoided.

n Savings on energy costs: the solar panels were less expensive than current rural energy

options, thus households could make savings. As women are the breadwinners in rural

settings, the money saved can be used for other economic purposes.

n Opportunities for income generation: Nancy Koroma, head of a family of five in Koya Port

Loko district, says that the 35-watt panels allow her to carry out her home activities at night4.

This frees up her days for selling juice to generate income which helps pay off the loan for

the solar system. A random sampling of Nancy’s cohort in other regions of Sierra Leone has

confirmed how solar power can help alleviate poverty in rural areas, which are heavily

populated by women and girls.

n Employment: capacity building among the solar grandmothers has provided an avenue

for self-employment for the women, as they earn income from the installation or repair of

the solar grids around the country. The solar energy enterprise can provide employment for

numerous women.

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SMART VILLAGES

for their electricity use and at the same time allows many more people to have access

to the technology.

Training illiterate women gives them a new lifeThe goal of BWSEASL is to give girls and women dignity, respect and independence

through the creation of an electricity supply for their village homes. No working contract is

signed with the women beneficiaries as the idea is for them to take ownership of the overall

concept. The working relationship aims to build tolerance, trust, compassion and generosity

with the women.

Capacity building is one of the easiest ways of achieving these goals and a further seven

women were selected by the local traditional leaders on their willingness to be sent to India

for basic training in solar photovoltaics. They were called the solar grandmothers because

they became the trainers of other women in basic solar electrification in Sierra Leone.

By August 2014, 59 women drawn from the different regions of the country had completed

their training. They are now expected to electrify a targeted 21,810 houses around Sierra

Leone. Plans are underway to train a further 150 female solar engineers3 selected from each

of the country’s 14 electoral districts. These women will introduce simple, basic and clean

electricity through the use of solar photovoltaics in remote inaccessible villages.

Box 2 Key impacts of the approach

n Electrification of houses by solar panels in villages and essential buildings in rural

communities such as schools, health centres, police stations and market centres.

n Construction of two production workshops funded by the United Nations Industrial

Development Organization (UNIDO) for micro-enterprises.

n Selection of 149 chiefdom headquarters in Sierra Leone for possible solar electrification,

including schools, clinics and social centres.

n Training of caretakers for UNIDO Growth Centres.

n Distribution of solar lanterns to police checkpoints, posts and other public places.

n Construction in 2009 of a training centre for women, supported by the government of Sierra

Leone.

Improving life for women and girls in Sierra Leone

103

Is the approach sustainable? The BWSEASL began their work by demonstrating rural residents’ willingness to pay for

the technology. Grants from the government paid the upfront costs for the construction

of the Barefoot training centre and for a small number of homes to obtain solar panels. The

beneficiaries, along with the rest of the villagers, then created a revolving fund to help others

get panels. After a deposit of approximately US$ 115, residents could pay off the loan at

about US$ 6 per month, which is less than they used to pay for batteries and kerosene

lighting. We have found from interviews that the revolving fund has financed more than

600 solar home systems in marginal rural communities in 12 districts of the country’s

four provinces.

Women trained by the BWSEASL became entrepreneurs, running small businesses selling

the solar panels, and now form a solar network made up of 16 micro-enterprises such as the

Solar System Home Management Committee (SSHMC).

References

1. Barefoot College. http://www.barefootcollege.org/about/ (accessed April 2015).

2. Barefoot College. 2014. Women Barefoot Solar Engineers a Community Solution.http://www.barefootcollege.org/women-barefoot-solar-engineers-a-community-solution/ (accessed

April 2015).

3. Edward M. Anaque, General Secretary, Barefoot Women Solar Engineers Association (pers.comm.).

4. Nancy Kanu, Chief Solar Engineer, Barefoot Women Engineers Association of Sierra Leone

(pers. comm.).

Author

Dr Christiana A. Thorpe, former Minister of Education for Sierra Leone and Chief ElectoralCommissioner, is a civil society activist who has established the Forum for African WomenEducationalists (FAWE, Sierra Leone Chapter) and Reach in for the Stars Foundation (RIFTS),both addressing issues on female education and overall women’s empowerment. [email protected]

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105

Charcoal is one of the most important yet least understood energy sources of the

African continent. It is a leading source of livelihoods for village communities in rural

areas and the preferred energy source for cooking and heating in urban areas. The

production of charcoal provides employment in rural communities because more than 65 per

cent of all households in the urban areas of East Africa use it as part of their energy mix. In

rural areas hardly any charcoal is used, as communities opt for firewood instead1. Any

practical alternatives will have to provide a viable income-generating option for rural areas

and a competitive energy option for urban households.

After the global oil crisis of 1973, unsustainable use of traditional biomass energy, especially

charcoal and firewood, became one of the trending topics in the energy sector at the global

scale. Eckholm’s publication in 19752 raised the profile of traditional biomass energy use in

developing countries, and it was followed by a series of publications that linked all traditional

biomass energy use with forest degradation and deforestation. By the 1990s, charcoal

production and its use in developing countries was marked as a leading environmental threat,

with negative impacts linked with deforestation, desertification and widespread soil erosion.

This led to blanket moratoria on production and distribution across several countries. Due to

the critical role played by charcoal, these measures were, needless to say, ineffective.

Enter Professor Emmanuel Chidumayo3, whose empirical work published in the 1990s

showed that charcoal production does not result in negative impacts in all cases. His work

highlighted how the degree of forest or range -

land clearing for charcoal varies considerably

between countries and between sites within

each country. In some cases, the extraction

of trees for charcoal, although significant,

was below the ecosystem’s natural regenera -

tion capacity – its mean annual increment

A way of life: energy provision in Africa

Murefu Barasa

The lack of accurate data oncharcoal trends remains a

key challenge in managing thethreat of unsustainable charcoal

production

measured in tonnes per hectare. He observed that, contrary to the charcoal-crisis narrative,

charcoal had little to no impact on the particular savannah ecosystem he studied.

The goal of these and other studies was in no way to downplay the widespread negative

impacts of unsustainable charcoal production but to highlight possibilities, albeit marginal,

for sustainable charcoal production. The findings helped to explain why the prediction of a

total depletion and collapse of Kenya’s forestry system by 1986 due to charcoal production

was inaccurate. A study by the Beijer Institute in the 1980s had asserted that “if estimates of

the consumption and growing stock are anything near correct, the trees will be depleted by

about 1986; even if the volume estimates were doubled or tripled, the stock would still be

exhausted by 1991 or 2005 respectively. Thus an acute shortage of woodfuel is imminent”.

The lack of accurate data on charcoal trends, however, remains a key challenge in managing

the threat of unsustainable charcoal production – which is both widespread and harmful.

A complex value chainNo one aspires to be a charcoal producer, as it is a low-paying, physically intense and health-

threatening undertaking, often done as a last-resort coping mechanism. Charcoal producers

in villages are the factories that respond to market demands in many urban areas in East

Africa as this is the preferred energy source for cooking and heating, solar-sourced cooking

so far being a non-starter. Charcoal is not just an option for urban off-grid households but all

households. Those that are connected to the electricity grid do not use electricity to cook

(including myself); urban middle-classes typically use liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in tanks

and the rest use a mix that includes charcoal.

Besides the producers – who receive the least number of shillings per kilogram sold to

the end user – charcoal has a complex value chain that includes brokers, transporters,

wholesalers, retailers and recipients of unofficial payments along the chain. In 2014, the

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Interpol estimated that unofficial

payments and bribes to organised criminals,

corrupt government officials and militia along

the charcoal value chain were between

US$ 14 million and US$ 50 million annually

in Africa alone. More than 20 million tonnes

of charcoal are consumed in Africa every year

and this is expected to increase to 46 million

SMART VILLAGES

106

Charcoal has a complex valuechain that includes brokers,transporters, wholesalers, retailersand recipients of unofficialpayments along the chain

tonnes by 2030, driven by sustained population growth, rapid urbanisation, and lack of

practical and affordable alternatives4.

Why the charcoal market? When compared against other alternatives including briquettes, kerosene, LPG and

electricity, charcoal out-competes most on several fronts (Figure 1).

The price of an energy option can be assessed using several metrics. Comparing the

price of common energy sources for cooking and heating in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania,

based on an analysis of price per unit of mass (US$ per kilogram) and price per unit of

energy output (US$ per joule), explains why some forms of energy are preferred and

continue to out-compete other forms. For the first metric, an analysis of the levelling options

107


50

45

40

35

30

25

20

15

10

5

00 10 20 30

Price US$/GJ

40 50 60 70

Ener

gy c

onte

nt M

J/kg

Low price, high energyLow price, high energy High price, high energyHigh price, high energy

Low price, low energyLow price, low energy High price, low energyHigh price, low energy

Low price, high energy High price, high energy

Low price, low energy High price, low energy

LPGKeroseneKerosene

Charcoal

BriquetteBriquette(carbonised)(carbonised)

Briquette(carbonised)

BriquetteBriquette(uncarbonised)(uncarbonised)Briquette(uncarbonised)

Kerosene

TanzaniaKenyaUganda

Key (2012 estimates)

Figure 1 Comparing price and energy content5

Note: Briquette types vary greatly in design, mass, volume, shape, price and energy content.Uncarbonised briquettes typically have lower energy content averaging 12MJ/kg, compared tocarbonised briquettes which average 20MJ/kg.

(incorporating all the costs of an energy-generating system over its lifetime: initial investment,

operations and maintenance, cost of investment) based on mass (kg), compares un -

carbonised briquettes, carbonised briquettes, charcoal, kerosene and LPG. The second

metric levelling options, based on cost per unit of energy output, compares all the options

above plus grid-based electricity. Energy density is also a significant metric, comparing the

energy output per unit of mass (joules per kg), and is important in determining the portability

of an energy form. This is paramount, especially in urban areas where cooking spaces are

constrained compared to rural areas, and explains why charcoal is preferred to firewood,

and kerosene to charcoal.

Although briquettes have a lower cost price per unit of energy output, they have much

lower energy densities. They are comparable to charcoal in terms of price (less than

US$ 30 per gigajoule) but cannot compete with charcoal on energy content per unit of

mass, with charcoal having values higher than 25 megajoules per kilogram. Both briquettes

and charcoal use similar energy conversion technologies (various forms of cook stoves),

although briquettes are more difficult to ignite, have much higher ash content and are not

so readily available. Additionally, briquettes vary greatly and the market lacks standards or

guidelines that can inform purchase. Such advantages make charcoal the undisputed

household energy of choice for a majority of urban households, and this has remained the

same for several decades.

Some misconceptions The failure of past renewable energy interventions has been based in part on the limited

understanding of the processing of energy selection as well as a lack of viable alternatives

to charcoal. Kerosene has a much higher energy content than charcoal and prices are

comparable. Although not clean or renewable, this is the energy form that is most likely

to compete effectively with charcoal in the urban centres of Africa. Others include mass-

produced ethanol or subsidised LPG. The price of charcoal in Kenya is about US$ 22 per

gigajoule compared to kerosene at US$ 28

per gigajoule, even though kerosene has up

to 50 per cent more energy density.

The rationale for energy choices at the house -

hold level is more complex and certainly goes

beyond considerations of price and energy

SMART VILLAGES

108

The failure of past renewableenergy interventions has beenbased in part on the limitedunderstanding of the processing of energy selection

density, although the two factors contribute

the most towards informing energy choices.

At the household level, energy con sumption

options and patterns for cooking and heating

applications are influenced by price, energy

content, ash content, smoke and fumes, the

available cooking appliance, the availability of

the fuel, the type of food (meal) to be prepared and the time of preparation. Additional criteria

include the rate of energy extraction, availability, safety, fluidity and storage requirements.

SummaryThe urban charcoal market is essential for East Africa because it remains a central part of

household energy, and the data show what a techno-utopian competitor might expect to

come up against – a societal structure that involves not only traditional forms of household

energy provision for cooking and heating, but also embedded patterns of rural employment

for charcoal production, and a livelihood influenced by shadowy interests along the value

chain of charcoal for the urban market. The cautionary scenario is that a top-down techno-

utopian solution could advance modern and alternative sources to charcoal as a primary

energy source for cooking and living in the urban setting, thereby reducing air pollution

and health problems, but that it has to be matched by a bottom-up social transformation that

generates employment and viable income alternatives for the producers in smart villages.

Acknowledgement

Part of this research undertaking was supported by the Energy and Environment Partnership

for Eastern and Southern Africa Program (EEP) and the African Wildlife Fund (AWF). The views

expressed here are solely those of the author and do not in any way represent the views of

EEP or AWF.

References

1. Barasa, M., Mutimba, S. and Bosibori, N. 2013. Analyzing Briquette Markets in Tanzania,Kenya and Uganda. Energy and Environment Partnership (EEP), Johannesburg, South Africa.

2. Eckholm, E.P. 1975. The Other Energy Crisis: Firewood. Worldwatch Paper 1. Worldwatch

Institute, Washington DC, USA.

109


A techno-utopian alternative tocharcoal has to be matched by

a social transformation thatgenerates employment and viable income alternatives

3. Chidumayo, E.N. and Gumbo, D.J. 2010. The Dry Forests and Woodlands of Africa.Earthscan, London, UK, and Washington, DC, USA.

4. Arnold, M., and Persson, R. 2003. Reassessing the fuelwood situation in developing

countries. International Forestry Review 5(4): 379–383. Commonwealth Forestry Association,

Shropshire, UK.

5. ERC. 2012. Charcoal Production and Commercialization in Kenya. Energy Regulatory

Commission, Nairobi, Kenya; Ferguson, H. 2012. Briquette Businesses in Uganda. Global

Village Energy Partnership (GVEP), London, UK; GVEP. 2011. Kenya Briquette IndustryStudy. Global Village Energy Partnership (GVEP), Nairobi, Kenya; Knopfle, M. 2004. A Study of Charcoal Supply in Kampala. Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, Energy

Advisory Project, Kampala, Uganda; UBS. 2012. Consumer Price Index. Uganda Bureau

of Statistics, Kampala, Uganda; UBS. 2012. Statistical Abstract 2012. Uganda Bureau of

Statistics, Kampala, Uganda; The World Bank. 2009. Environmental Crisis or SustainableDevelopment Opportunity: Transforming the Charcoal Sector in Tanzania. The World Bank,


Author

Murefu Barasa is the Managing Partner at EED Advisory Limited, a boutique advisory firm with service offerings in the energy and environment sector. He is an experienced renewableenergy and energy access consultant and holds a BSc in Environmental Studies from KenyattaUniversity and a Masters in Environmental Science from Yale [email protected]

SMART VILLAGES

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111

The 20th century has witnessed enormous economic progress, yet widespread poverty

persists. Estimates suggest that, in 2014, one in every seven people on Earth lived

in absolute deprivation and wretched poverty. This essay poses some big questions

about the stark reality and endeavours to provide short answers. Who are the poorest people

in the world? Where do they live? Why are they poor? What are the attempted solutions?

Why does the problem persist? Is a better future possible? If so, how?

The poorest are those who cannot meet their basic human needs in terms of food and clothing,

let alone appropriate shelter or adequate health care and education. The widely used poverty

line is US$ 1.25 per day in terms of purchasing-power parity1. In 2012, just over a billion people

in the world lived below this line, probably unable to reach the critical minimum in terms of

nutrition2. Infant mortality, life expectancy and literacy rates among the bottom billion remained

abysmal, with economic exclusion reinforcing social and political exclusion everywhere.

DemographicsThe perennial poor are concentrated in three regions of the developing world. In 2012,

415 million lived in Sub-Saharan Africa, 399 million in South Asia and 157 million in East Asia

and the Pacific: altogether 971 million, of whom 292 million lived in India and 84 million in

China. In addition, Latin America and the Caribbean were home to 27 million perennial poor,

and 11 million lived in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia. In 1981, nearly 2 billion

people lived in this wretched poverty. This number has halved in three decades. Even so, it

remains unacceptably large.

Absolute deprivationSuch poverty persists among people because

they do not have the income, or sufficient

income, to buy goods and services for meet -

ing their basic needs, including energy to help

Economic exclusion denies people the social opportunities

and political participation thatmight otherwise help them to

improve their lives

A better future for the bottom billion

Deepak Nayyar

improve their lives. Energy poverty, as much as income poverty, keeps them in a state of

absolute deprivation. The underlying reasons are simple: most of them have no assets, such

as land or livestock, which could be used to yield an income, so that they have nothing to

sell but their labour. Yet some cannot find work, while others – the majority – work very hard

but cannot earn enough even to feed themselves, let alone buy fuel. This economic exclusion

also denies them the social opportunities and political participation that might otherwise help

improve their lives.

Attempted solutionsNational governments and international institutions have sought to address this problem

through anti-poverty programmes that seek to provide income support for the poor through

public works or cash transfers. Sometimes, in some places, this goes together with enabling

support through rural electrification or other forms of rural infrastructure. This approach

may well be necessary as a means of mitigating poverty – and it does. Experience suggests,

however, that it is not sufficient: it is often too little, the delivery is poor, and the leakages are

significant. What is more, income support constitutes transfer payments in perpetuity, which

Access to energy can enable people to set up their own businesses.

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A.J

. Cotto

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ream

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om


cannot eradicate poverty or provide a sustainable solution. Indeed, widespread poverty

persists despite such programmes.

Orthodox thinking among economists, increasingly accepted by policy practitioners and

political leaders in governments, stresses the importance of economic growth as the only

solution to the problem of poverty. Economic growth is obviously necessary. Indeed, between

1981 and 2008, it was a critical factor underlying the reduction in the number of people and

the percentage of the population below the poverty line, particularly in Asia. But the belief

that it can ever be sufficient represents a triumph of hope over experience.

Persistent problemIt is striking that more than half the bottom billion still live in Asia despite the region’s

rapid economic growth, rising share of world income, and industrialisation during the

period 1980–2010. China and India have witnessed the fastest growth in human history

over the past three decades. Yet in 2012, of the poorest billion people in the world,

29 per cent lived in India while 8 per cent lived in China. Sub-Saharan Africa remained

home to 42 per cent of the bottom billion despite an impressive growth performance during

the 2000s.

This poverty persisted essentially because rapid economic growth was associated with

a rise in economic inequality, and little if any of the increments in income accrued to the

poorest. Energy poverty reinforced the problem. Such outcomes often lead governments

to discover the idea of inclusive growth, but it remains in the realm of rhetoric simply

because growth can be inclusive, or pro-poor, if – and only if – it creates employment,

livelihoods and energy access in off-grid villages. But that has not happened. Clearly, more

of the same will not change reality for a long time.

Better futureThe living conditions of the poorest in

the world are ethically unacceptable, politi -

cally unsustainable and socially dangerous.

However, a better world is possible. In this

quest, economic growth is essential, yet not

enough. The essays in this collection explore

how energy access for the poor can perform

Growth can be inclusive, or pro-poor, if – and only if –

it creates employment, livelihoods and energy access

in off-grid villages


113

a catalytic role. It should be combined with

employment creation, social protection and

human development. There could, then, be a

better future for the bottom billion.

The well-being of the poor depends on their

private income and their public entitlements.

Assuming that there is no income from assets, private income – which supports private

consumption – in turn depends upon employment levels for those in the world of work and

social protection for those who are unemployed. Public entitlements, which support social

consumption, depend upon the resources made available by governments for the public

provision of services such as health care and education, their delivery and quality, and

access for the poor. Thus, a mix of private income and public entitlements that is sufficient

to meet basic human needs – food, clothing, shelter, health care and education – together

with energy access that can act as a catalyst for development, should help eradicate

absolute deprivation and lift the poorest above the poverty line.

Of course, meaningful development is about much more. It must enable ordinary people,

men and women, to exercise their own choices for a decent life. In the pursuit of this

objective, it is also necessary to provide the poor with access to social opportunities that

are the essence of development as an end, and impart the poor with capabilities that are

essential as a means of their participation in development through democratic engagement,

which improves their well-being. The significance of this proposition is highlighted by

the medieval distinction between agents and patients. The bottom billion must be seen

as agents, or participants, in a process, who can shape their destinies, rather than as

patients, or passive recipients, of the benefits from development programmes designed by

benevolent governments or institutions.

Employment and livelihoodsEmployment is an imperative both as a means and as an end. Economic growth provides

income opportunities for people only through employment creation. Thus, employ ment

and livelihoods are critical as the insti tutional mechanism that mediates between growth

in aggregate income for the economy and growth in private income for individuals or

households. Employment, in the form of decent work, is also what imparts dignity to the

deprived or excluded. Apart from conventional wage-employment, sustainable livelihoods

Employment and self-employment,which could blossom intoentrepreneurship, are bothinstrumental in, and constitutive of, well-being for the poorest

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SMART VILLAGES


can be created through self-employment. In villages, home to the poorest, work with assets

such as land or livestock can yield an income stream to support private consumption. In

sum, employment and self-employment, which could blossom into entre preneurship, are

both instrumental in, and constitutive of, well-being for the poorest.

Incomes from wage- and self-employment are an essential part of a better future for the

bottom billion. To begin with, this must be supplemented by public entitlements that support

their social consumption, and social protection that provides them with a safety net in difficult

times. The most essential public entitlements, which have to be provided by governments,

are health care and education. These improve the quality of life for people and create

capabilities among them. For the poorest, the components are obvious: safe drinking water,

sanitation, vaccination, preventive medicine and community health; and primary education,

adult literacy and skill development. The most essential social protection is insurance for

health, accidents and life. Since insurance is about pooling risk, this can be done at modest

premiums supported largely by governments with contributions from people that increase

over time. The outcome in terms of human development could help transform the lives of the

bottom billion: it would improve their well-being; it would provide them with access to social

opportunities; and it would impart them with capabilities that would, taken together, empower

such people to help themselves.

Initial conditionsUrban poverty can be wretched. But most of the poorest people live in villages and depend

upon agriculture, directly or indirectly, for their livelihoods. Their ability to help themselves

could undergo a dramatic transformation if governments were to help create a physical

infrastructure in rural hinterlands that are almost bereft of it. This is feasible. It requires

electricity from the grid or off the grid, combined with non-conventional sources of

energy, which could be a catalyst not only for the physical infrastructure but also for the

social infrastructure in health care and education. It requires investment in rural roads,

transport and communications, around which

econo mic activities can develop to create

non-agricultural rural employment. It needs

irri ga tion and storage facilities to boost agri -

cultural incomes. Creating these initial con -

ditions could open the door to a much better

future for the bottom billion.

People’s ability to help themselvescould undergo a dramatic

transformation if governmentswere to help create a physical

infrastructure in rural hinterlands


115

ConclusionsThe conclusion is simple. Employment is the solution. For people who do not have the income

to meet their basic needs, often in villages that have no energy access, employment

opportunities are the only sustainable means of reducing and eradicating poverty. The

preceding essays argue that energy provision fosters employment opportunities. Moreover,

employment creation and entrepreneurial activity mobilise the most abundant yet under -

utilised resource in poor countries – the people for development. And the very people who

constitute resources on the supply side also provide markets on the demand side. This

interactive causation between supply and demand is a potential source of economic growth

that highlights the importance of domestic markets in the process of development.

This should lead to some rethinking about the meaning of efficiency beyond the usual

conceptions of economic or technical efficiency. Indeed, employment expansion is at least

as important as growth in productivity. In a sense, both represent the utilisation of labour as

a resource. Why, then, does thinking about efficiency focus on one and neglect the other? It

is important to reflect on this question. The answer, which calls for change in both economics

and politics, could make a real difference. In the sphere of economics, the meaning of

efficiency must extend beyond output per worker or growth in productivity to encompass

employment expansion and labour use. In the realm of politics, employment and livelihoods,

supported by off-grid energy provision, must become an integral part of the discourse and

the process, as a primary objective rather than a residual outcome.

Notes

1. Two poverty lines are used in World Bank estimates. PPP $1.25 is the mean of poverty lines

in terms of consumption per person in the poorest 15 countries of the world. There is a second

poverty line of PPP $2 per day which is the median poverty line for developing countries as a

group.

2. This total number, as well as the number of the poor in each region cited in the subsequent

paragraph, is based on World Bank estimates of poverty. See World Development Indicators,

online database http://data.worldbank.org/products/wdi. These estimates are not without their

problems in terms of methodology and statistical foundations, but are the only possible

source for international comparisons over time, which sketch a global picture with broad

orders of magnitude.

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Further reading

Deaton, A. 2013. The Great Escape: Health, Wealth and the Origins of Inequality. Princeton

University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA.

Nayyar, D. 2013. Catch Up: Developing Countries in the World Economy. Oxford University

Press, Oxford, UK.

Nayyar, D. 2014. Why employment matters: Reviving growth and reducing inequality.

International Labour Review 153(3): 351–364. International Labour Office, Geneva, Switzerland.

Sen, A. 1999. Development as Freedom. Alfred E. Knopf, New York, NY, USA.

Author

Professor Deepak Nayyar is Emeritus Professor of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, NewDelhi, and an Honorary Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. [email protected]


117

Contributors

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Tun Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid was Chief Secretary to the Government of Malaysia from 1990

to 1996. He is a graduate of the University of Malaya, the Institute of Social Studies, the Hague,

and Harvard University, USA. Ahmad Sarji joined the Malayan Civil Service in 1961, was

appointed District Officer of Rembau, Negeri Sembilan in 1963, held State and Federal posts,

and was chosen by the Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein to be the founding Director-

General of the Farmers’ Organisation Authority. He continued after retirement with numerous

positions including President of the Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and

Management, Chairman of Permodalan Nasional Berhad (National Equity Corporation) and many

of its companies, Executive Chairman of the Cambridge Malaysian Education and Development

Trust, founding Chairman of the Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia (IKIM) and President

of the Heritage of Malaysia Trust.

Professor AbuBakr Bahaj is the Principal Investigator of the e4D programme and leads the 45-

strong Energy and Climate Change Division at the University of Southampton, UK, where he

completed his PhD, progressing from a researcher to a Personal Chair in Sustainable Energy.

For more than 25 years, Professor Bahaj has pioneered sustainable energy research and

established the energy theme within the university. His major research programmes may be

found at www.energy.soton.ac.uk, and include Cities and Infrastructure, Data and Modelling,

Energy and Behaviour, Energy and Buildings, Energy for Development, Environmental Impacts,

Microgeneration Technologies and Renewable Energy (Solar Photovoltaics and Marine Energy).

Professor Bahaj’s work has resulted in more than 270 articles published in academic refereed

journals and conference series of international standing. In 2012 he was appointed Chief

Scientific Advisor to Southampton City Council – believed to be the first such appointment in the

UK, and in 2014 the UK’s Science Council named him as one of the country’s 100 leading

practising scientists.

Dr Mukulika Banerjee is Associate Professor in Social Anthropology at the London School of

Economics and Political Science (LSE), UK, and Inaugural Director of the South Asia Centre,

launched at LSE in June 2015. She grew up in India and took a first degree in English followed

by Masters degrees in Sociology, all at the University of Delhi. She completed her DPhil at the

University of Oxford, UK, in 1994 and was appointed a post-doctoral Junior Research Fellow at

Wolfson College, Oxford, the same year. She took up her first lectureship in 1996 at University

College London and joined LSE in 2009. Her latest book, Why India Votes?, was published in

2014 and she is currently working on a monograph on democracy and village life. Mukulika also

has an active interest in music and the arts, giving regular public lectures on a wide range of

119

subjects. She has also made a documentary (with CultureWise) for BBC Radio 4 on the Indian

elections and makes regular appearances on radio and television.

Murefu Barasa is the Managing Partner at EED Advisory Limited, a boutique advisory firm based

in Nairobi, Kenya, with service offerings in the energy and environment sector. He is an

experienced renewable energy and energy access consultant, having led engagements for

several clients including the World Bank Group, UN agencies, the government of Kenya (Ministry

of Energy), the government of Tanzania (Ministry of Energy and Minerals) and the government

of Rwanda (Ministry of Infrastructure), among others. Murefu holds a BSc in Environmental

Studies from Kenyatta University (Kenya) and a Masters in Environmental Science from Yale

University (USA). He lives with his wife Andreata and daughter Imani in Nairobi.

Dr Terry van Gevelt is Project Manager for the Smart Villages Initiative, Research Associate and

Affiliated Lecturer at the Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge, UK, and a

senior member of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge. Previously, he was a visiting scholar at Seoul

National University and the Korea Rural Economic Institute, and a consultant for the World Bank.

Terry holds a BSc (Hons) from the Department of Economics, University of Warwick, UK, and

MPhil and PhD degrees from the Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge.

Javier González Díaz is Affiliated Lecturer at the Centre of Development Studies, University of

Cambridge, UK, where he teaches Institutions and Development. He is also associated to the

Centre of Latin American Studies, University of Cambridge, where he teaches Inequality in Latin

America. Javier is Associated Researcher at the Centre for New Development Thinking, Faculty

of Economics at the University of Chile. He has been Advisor on Education and Innovation Policy

to the Chilean Minister of Finance, Executive Secretary to the Ministers’ Council for Advanced

Human Capital Formation, Director of Studies at the National Commission for Scientific and

Technological Research, Researcher at Chile’s Ministry of Education, and Consultant to

UNESCO, Oxfam and the World Bank. His research focuses on inequality, social mobility,

education policy, political and institutional economics, and social and economic development.

Professor Sir Brian Heap is Senior Adviser for Smart Villages, Research Associate of the Centre

of Development Studies, University of Cambridge, UK, and Past President of the European

Academies Science Advisory Council. He was Master of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge, and

Vice-President and Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society, London. He has doctorates from

Nottingham and Cambridge and was Director of Research at the Institute of Animal Physiology

Contributors

and Genetics Research (Cambridge and Edinburgh) and at the Biotechnology and Biological

Sciences Research Council (Swindon, UK). He has been engaged in public issues of

biotechnology, population growth, sustainability and science policy, working with the World Health

Organization, the UK-China Forum and the European Commission.

Dr John Holmes is co-Leader of the Smart Villages Initiative and a Senior Research Fellow at

the University of Oxford, UK, where his research is concerned with making better links between

science and policy making. His previous career spanned the assessment and development of

clean coal technologies, responsibility for the science and engineering of the UK’s radioactive

waste disposal programme, and Head of the Science Programme of the Environment Agency,

the environmental regulator for England and Wales. He has a first degree in natural sciences

from Cambridge University, a PhD in engineering from Imperial College London, and an MBA

from Henley Management College, UK.

Professor Daniel M. Kammen is a Professor of Energy at the University of California, Berkeley,

USA, with parallel appointments in the Energy and Resources Group, the Goldman School of

Public Policy, and the department of Nuclear Engineering. He was educated in physics at Cornell

(BA 1984) and Harvard (MA 1986; PhD 1988), and held postdoctoral positions at the California

Institute of Technology and at Harvard. He was an Assistant Professor at Princeton University,

USA, before moving to Berkeley. His work is focused on energy access and on developing low-

carbon energy systems across scales. He was appointed by US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton

in 2010 as the first energy fellow of the Environment and Climate Partnership for the Americas

(ECPA) initiative, and is the Lead Scholar for the Fulbright NEXUS programme in Energy and

Climate Change. Professor Kammen served as the Chief Technical Specialist for Renewable

Energy and Energy Efficiency at the World Bank from 2010 to 2011. He has served as a

coordinating lead author on various reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

(IPCC) since 1999. The IPCC shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Professor P.C. Kesavan has made outstanding contributions in the areas of low-dose

radiobiology and chemical radioprotection, especially by caffeine. He qualified in agricultural

science in New Delhi, India, and held faculty positions in the University of Calgary and

Dalhousie University, Canada, and in New Delhi. He was Director of Bioscience at the

Department of Atomic Energy, Mumbai, and Honorary Executive Director and Distinguished

Fellow at the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai, India. He has held visiting

positions in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and the USA, and represented India at the UN

SMART VILLAGES

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121

Contributors

Scientific Committee on Effects of Atomic Radiation in Vienna. Professor Kesavan is on the

editorial boards of the International Journal of Radiation Biology and the Journal of RadiologicalProtection. Since 1999 he has worked in the area of sustainability science, sustainable

agriculture and rural development, and has published papers on the management of extreme

hydro-meteoro logical disasters in reputed journals such as Philosophical Transactions of theRoyal Society, London, amongst others. Professor Kesavan’s current focus is on climate change

and sustainable agriculture.

Dr R. Vasant Kumar has more than 20 years of research experience in electrochemistry, energy

devices, materials chemistry synthesis and sensors. Dr Kumar has been conducting world-leading

research in materials chemistry reactions at the cutting edge of new applications within an

ecological calculus. He has published more than 200 papers, 12 patents, 4 chapters in handbooks

and 1 edited book (High Energy Density Lithium Batteries: Materials, Engineering, Applications,

Wiley-VCH 2010). He has supervised more than 30 PhD students, 20 postdoctoral researchers

and 25 visiting students, and hosted 8 visiting professors. He is the Founder and Director of

several start-up companies – Solutions4Hydrogen Ltd in Pune, India; Environmental Monitoring

& Control Ltd, Stafford, UK; Cambridge Solar Energy Solutions Ltd, Cambridge, UK – for furthering

his research into real-world applications in the areas of energy and environment.

Andrew Mnzava is a Senior Research Officer with the Commission for Science and Technology

(COSTECH) in Tanzania. He has been extensively involved in rural electrification programmes,

from project design through implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and in renewable energy

policy advocacy. He has been involved in projects such as formulating and facilitating the

framework for accelerating off-grid rural electrification in Tanzania under the Rural Energy Agency

and Norwegian Embassy in Tanzania; State of Play, a preliminary analysis of mini-grid project

developer skills, scale and scope; the Biomass Energy Strategy for Tanzania by the Ministry of

Energy and Minerals; Analysis and Characterization of the Energy Sector and Renewable Energy

Technologies in Tanzania, by the Cleaner Production Centre of Tanzania CPCT; the Lighting

Tanzania project funded by the World Bank; the Kigoma Sola project funded by Millennium

Challenge Account Tanzania (MCA-T); and Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects

supported by the Swedish Energy Agency (SEA) in Tanzania, to mention a few.

Professor Deepak Nayyar is Emeritus Professor of Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University,

New Delhi, India, and Honorary Fellow of Baliol College, Oxford, UK. He served as Chief

Economic Adviser to the government of India and Secretary in the Ministry of Finance from 1989

to 1991, and was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Delhi from 2000 to 2005. He was Distinguished

University Professor of Economics at the New School for Social Research, New York, USA,

Professor of Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and taught economics at the

universities of Oxford and Sussex, UK, and the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. He was

Chairman of the Board of the World Institute for Development Economics Research, Helsinki,

Finland, served on the Board of Directors of the Social Science Research Council of the USA, and

on several international bodies including the World Commission on the Social Dimension of

Globalization and the South Centre, Geneva, Switzerland. Professor Nayyar has published

numerous articles and books on trade, globalisation, liberalisation, development, stability and growth.

Dr Tobias S. Schmidt is an Assistant Professor of Energy Politics at ETH Zürich, Switzerland.

His research centres on the interaction of energy policy and its underlying politics with technological

change in the energy sector. His research covers both developed and developing countries. One

of his areas of expertise is the role of politics and policies for risk perception among private-sector

energy investors. He is a consultant to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and

has co-authored the UNDP report De-risking Renewable Energy Investment. As part of his work

on developing countries he has published several papers on rural electrification, specifically through

village-level mini-grids. Dr Schmidt also contributed a research project on electric mini-grids by

Stanford University’s Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies, USA.

Professor Wole Soboyejo received a BSc in mechanical engineering from King’s College,

University of London, in 1985, and a PhD in materials science from Cambridge University, UK, in

1988. He worked as a Research Scientist at the McDonnell Douglas Research Labs (1988–1992)

before joining the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Ohio State University,

USA, from 1992 until 1999. Between 1997 and 1998, he was a Visiting Martin Luther King

Associate Professor at MIT, moving to Princeton University, USA, as a Professor of Mechanical

and Aerospace Engineering in 1999. He recently served as the President of the African University

of Science and Technology in Abuja, Nigeria (2012–2014). Professor Soboyejo is now back at

Princeton, where he is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

Professor Benjamin K. Sovacool is Director of the Danish Center for Energy Technologies and

a Professor of Business and Social Sciences at Aarhus University, Denmark. He is also Associate

Professor of Law at Vermont Law School, USA, and Director of the Energy Security and Justice

Program at their Institute for Energy and the Environment, as well as Editor-in-Chief of the

peer-reviewed international journal Energy Research & Social Science. Professor Sovacool works

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Contributors

as a researcher, consultant and teacher on issues pertaining to renewable energy and energy

efficiency, the politics of large-scale energy infrastructure, the design of public policy to improve

energy security and access to electricity, and the building of adaptive capacity to the consequences

of climate change. Professor Sovacool is also the author of more than 300 refereed articles, book

chapters and reports on energy and climate topics. He received his PhD in science and technology

studies from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, USA.

Michael J. Ssali graduated from Makerere University Kampala, Uganda, in 1976 as a secondary

school teacher (of English). He taught at St Henry’s College Kitovu and later at Kakoma Secondary

School in Uganda before migrating to Nairobi, Kenya, from 1980 to 1986, where he studied

journalism and contributed articles to the Daily Nation and Kenya Times. He returned to Uganda

to start farming with his wife while at the same time practising journalism. He was Masaka District

Chairman of the National Organization for Civic Education and Election Monitoring (NOCEM), from

1993 to 1999. He has toured the USA under the International Visitors Program (1997). He won

the Best Business Journalist of the Year Award in 2008 and earned a trip to a few places in South

Africa including attending the Highway Africa Conference at Rhodes University in Grahamstown.

He writes a weekly column in the Daily Monitor titled Farmers Diary, and he is a fellow of b4fa –

Biosciences for Farming in Africa (www.b4fa.org).

Professor M.S. Swaminathan, Emeritus Chairman and Chief Mentor of the M.S. Swaminathan

Research Foundation, has been acclaimed by TIME magazine as one of the 20 most influential

Asians of the 20th century. He has been described by the United Nations Environment Programme

as “the Father of Economic Ecology” because of his leadership of the evergreen revolution

movement in agriculture and by Jávier Pérez de Cuéllar, fifth Secretary-General of the United

Nations, as “a living legend who will go into the annals of history as a world scientist of rare

distinction”. He was Chairman of the UN Science Advisory Committee set up in 1980 to take follow-

up action on the Vienna Plan of Action. He has also served as Independent Chairman of the FAO

Council (1981–1985), President of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and

Natural Resources (1984–1990), President of the World Wide Fund for Nature (India) from

1989–1996, and served as President of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs

(2002–2007), President of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (1991–1996 and

2005–2007), and Chairman of the National Commission on Farmers (2004–2006).

Dr Christiana A. Thorpe recently retired as Chief Electoral Commissioner of the Sierra Leone

National Electoral Commission. She was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone, holds degrees in modern

languages from University College Dublin, Ireland and St. Clements University, British West Indies.

As Minister of Education, she piloted a new policy on education for Sierra Leone, introducing radical

structural and other reforms in the education system. She is a civil society activist on empowerment

of women, and established the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE, Sierra Leone

Chapter) and Reach in for the Stars Foundation (RIFTS), both addressing issues of female

education and overall women’s empowerment. Her work has brought accolades and awards for

education, elections and the empowerment of women.

Tan Sri Ir Ahmad Zaidee Laidin FASc graduated in electrical engineering at Brighton College of

Technology (now University of Brighton, UK), and gained an MSc in technological economics from

the University of Stirling, UK. He is a registered professional engineer with the Board of Engineers

Malaysia, and was a UK chartered engineer. Elected Academician, Ahmad Zaidee previously

served as an engineer in several technical and management positions with the national electricity

utility company, and was appointed head of MARA Institute of Technology in Malaysia, which

became Universiti Teknologi MARA during his tenure of office. He is an Honorary Fellow of

the Institution of Engineers, Malaysia, and the Academy of Sciences, Malaysia, as well as

holding honorary doctorates from the universities of Stirling, Oxford Brookes and Manchester

Metropolitan, UK, and Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. He is Honorary Professor of Napier

University, UK, a Past President of the Federation of Engineering Institutions of Southeast

Asia and the Pacific (FEISEAP), and Honorary Fellow of the ASEAN Federation of Engineering

Organizations (AFEO). He represented Malaysia at the World Federation of Engineering

Organizations (WFEO) while serving as President of the Institution of Engineers, Malaysia. He is

Secretary General of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia and chairs its Energy Task Force, is

Chairman of the Board of Directors of Unversiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, and is a Board Member

of the Sustainable Energy Development Authority of Malaysia.

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Energy is the golden thread that connects economic growth, increased social equity, and an environment that allows the world to thrive.UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon

Who are the poorest people in the world? Where do they live? Why are they energy poor? What are the solutions? Is a better future possible? If so, how?

Professor Deepak Nayyar

Access to energy, especially for rural communities, represents a central pillar ofdevelopment. To date, it is estimated that around 1.3 billion people in the world have no reliable access to electricity. Without a reliable energy supply it is difficult to escape a subsistence lifestyle and poverty.Professor AbuBakr Bahaj

The vision for smart villages is that modern energy access can act as a catalyst for development – education, health, food security, productive enterprise, clean

water and sanitation, environmental sustainability and participatory democracy – which makes transformative change possible.

Drs John Holmes and Terry van Gevelt


Paperback £10.00/US$15.00 BansonHardback £20.00/US$30.00 Cambridge, UK

Smart Villages presents 16 essays by leading scientists and thinkers, providing

policy makers, donors and development agencies concerned with rural energy

access with new insights on the barriers to energy access in villages in

developing countries – technological, financial and political – and explores

opportunities and efforts to overcome them.

smart villages v9:layout 1

Documents